The top seven companies with the largest intangible value in the world belong to the technology sector. They are Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Alibaba, Facebook and Tencent. This is discussed by the Global Intangible Finance Tracker (GIFT) 2018, which was presented this Tuesday by Corporate Excellence and attended by Proa Comunicación. However, these intangibles, which represent a high percentage of their business values, are not disclosed. For example, Amazon: of the 827 billion dollars accounted for by intangibles, 810 billion are undisclosed.
Another sector with an important presence in this ranking is telecommunications. Specifically, there are four companies, led by AT&T. It is followed by the American Verizon, Softbank of Japan and Deutsche Telecom of Germany. Intangibles in the case of AT&T amount to 220 billion dollars, which represents 62% of its business value.
In other economic spheres, according to the report, there are huge gaps between the leaders and the companies that follow them. For example, in the aerospace and defense sector, the United Technologies network reveals intangibles worth 16 billion dollars, which is double the total disclosed by the runner up, Rolls Royce. This gap can also be seen in sectors such as the medical sector: the net number of intangibles revealed by Dow DuPont is five times that of its closest rival.
The report also confirms the growing importance of intangible assets in companies in the global economy, as well as trends in this area within different countries.
You can view the full report with all the graphics here: http://brandfinance.com/images/upload/gift.pdf