The world's most profitable business is Saudi Aramco, an oil company
Saudi Aramco, divulging its finances for the first time, revealed that it is the world's most profitable company.
The Saudi oil company made $111 billion last year, according to a note from Moody's. The rating agency based that on a prospectus for a massive bond offering Aramco expects to use to help finance the purchase 70 percent of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. Aramco hopes to buy the state-owned petrochemical company for $69.1 billion.
It is the first public disclosure of earnings by Aramco in the decades it has been owned by the Saudi government.
By comparison, Apple, the world's most profitable public company, made $59.4 billion in 2018, just more than half as much as Aramco. ExxonMobil made $20.8 billion.