GM keeps No. 1 spot on Fortune 500 list

NEW YORK (UPI) General Motors Corp. is No. 1.

Despite a year in which its principal rival produced betterearnings, General Motors strengthened its grip on the No. 1 spot onthe Fortune 500 list as the nation's largest industrial company, themagazine said Monday.

The automaker posted 1986 sales of $102.8 billion, a 6.7 percentgain over the previous year's $96.4 billion.

Exxon Corp., the world's largest oil company, ranked No. 2 onthe list for the second consecutive year with 1986 sales of $69.9billion.

The 1986 Fortune 500 - corporate America's bestsellers -reflected the sagging fortunes of big oil and the strength of autosales.

In 1981, 12 of the top 20 companies on the list were oilcompanies, including four of the top five. This year only 7 of thetop 20 represented the oil patch.

Ford Motor Co. moved into the third position with 1986 sales of$62.7 billion, replacing Mobil Oil Corp., which fell to No. 5 onsales of $44.9 billion.

International Business Machines Corp., with sales of $51.3billion, moved into the No. 4 position, its highest ranking ever onthe list.

Rounding out the Top 10: General Electric, $35.2 billion insales; American Telephone & Telegraph, $34 billion; Texaco, $31.6billion; Du Pont, $27.1 billion; and Chevron, $24.4 billion.

Chrysler moved from No. 13 to No. 11, its highest position onthe list since 1978.

Big oil's decline was dramatic. Texaco dropped from No. 6 toNo. 8, Chevron from No. 7 to No. 10, Amoco from No. 11 to No. 13,Shell from No. 14 to No. 15, and Atlantic Richfield from No. 12 toNo. 20. Only Exxon held its position, though it suffered a 19.4percent decline in earnings, Fortune said.

Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco made strong advances. PhilipMorris jumped to No. 12 from No. 27, and RJR Nabisco climbed to No.14, up from No. 23.

Two other firms rejoined the top 20. Boeing was No. 16, up fromNo. 21, and Procter & Gamble moved to No. 18, up from No. 21.

"The effects of restructuring continued to ripple through theranks of the industrials, which last year employed 600,000 fewerworkers than they did in 1985," the magazine said.

In addition, other companies disappeared from the list.Thirteen were swallowed up by other 500 companies and 12 went privateas a result of leveraged buyouts. At the same time, 33 new companiesappeared on the list.

One-third of the Fortune 500 companies reported lower sales in1986 than in 1985. Total revenues of the 500 declined, the magazinesaid, dropping 5 percent to $1.7 trillion from a record $1.8 trillionthe year before.

The cutoff figure to make the 500 list also declined. Rochester& Pittsburgh Coal, based in Indiana, Pa., and ranked No. 500, hadannual revenues of $420 million, some $4 million below the 500thcompany in 1985.

Among the states, New York, Illinois and California repeated asthe No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 homes for the Fortune 500. Sixty-six ofthe 500 companies call New York state their headquarters, down from75 last year, with 50 based in Illinois and 38 based in California.

To qualify as a Fortune 500 industrial, more than half of thecompany's sales must be derived from manufacturing or mining.