To see how consistent they have been, Mr Evans reran his calculations using net profit and market-capitalisation figures for previous years.
Three of the four largest banks by market capitalisation are state-controlled.
Years of low returns have pushed Dresdner and its compatriots down the market-capitalisation rankings (see chart), even though they remain among the biggest banks measured by assets.
It is now France's 39th-largest company by market capitalisation on the back of possible Internet forays.
It owns 55% of Leighton, which is such a successful construction company in Asia-Pacific that its market capitalisation is nearly twice that of its parent.
ECONOMIST: Two construction giants seek to evade a Spanish predator
They have profiled board members of the top 1, 000 Indian firms - private and state-owned - that account for four-fifths of the market capitalisation of companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in 2010.
The merger, which would create the world's 22nd-largest bank in terms of market capitalisation, is only the latest stage in the effort to create a Canadian superbank.
Selling assets makes a lot of sense for a company which now has a break-up value much higher than its market capitalisation.
On top of this, of course, the government reaps dividends from its 40% share in Petrobras, which is the fifth-largest company in the Americas by market capitalisation.
State-controlled companies account for 80% of the market capitalisation of the Chinese stockmarket, more than 60% of Russia's, and 35% of Brazil's.
The proposed link-up would also create the biggest bank, by market capitalisation, in the euro area, as well as the largest foreign financial institution in Latin America.
Besides T-Online and Terra Networks, Freeserve, the next biggest by market capitalisation, was set up by Dixon's, a British retailer.
IPOs has always been strongly correlated with market peaks, measured by the ratio of capitalisation to the book values of companies and by price-earnings ratios.
The collapse in September of the Frankfurt-London merger, which would have brought together Europe's biggest two exchanges by market capitalisation, has at most slowed this process only a little.
应用推荐