The Biggest Companies in Australia

As of the end of July 2025, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) had a total market capitalisation of more than USD$2.1 trillion¹, making it the largest stock exchange in the southern hemisphere. But what are the big names which make up these numbers?

In this article, we will take a look at the biggest Australian companies. Firstly, we will examine the top 10 biggest companies in Australia by market capitalisation, before highlighting the largest Australian companies in terms of revenue.

The information in this article is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.

Top 10 Biggest Companies in Australia by Market Cap

In the following sections, we’ll take a quick look at each of the 10 largest Australian companies in terms of market capitalisation.

1. Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Currently topping the list as the largest company in Australia by market cap is the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). 

One of the so-called big four banks of Australia, the Commonwealth Bank was founded in 1911 by the Australian government but, in 1991, the government of the day began the process of privatisation with the bank’s first share offer. The bank was fully privatised by 1996. 

CBA is one of the leading banks in Australia. It provides more than 17 million clients with both retail and commercial banking services, primarily in Australia but also in New Zealand. 

CBA shares have performed well in recent years, a reflection of the bank’s strong financial performance. Although it should be noted that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.  

Like many banks, CBA has benefitted from higher interest rates in the last few years, which have allowed it to earn more from its lending operations. 

In the table below, we’ve highlighted some of important figures from the bank’s full-year results.

Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia – Full Year Profit Announcement 2025.

2. BHP Group

BHP Group, which was founded in 1885, is not only the largest mining company in Australia by market cap but, indeed, the world.  

BHP is a leading producer of both copper and iron ore. Although the group produces other commodities, these two metals account for the vast majority of revenue (89% in 2025).  

In the year ended 30 June 2025, the mining giant set new production records for both of these key metals, producing more than 2 Mt of copper and 263 Mt of iron ore.  

As the world’s largest importer of iron ore, China is an important market for BHP, meaning that the health of the Chinese economy can play an important role in BHP’s performance. 

3. Westpac Banking

The second of Australia’s big four banks, Westpac Banking Corporation was established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales and was renamed following its acquisition of the Commercial Bank of Australia in 1982.  

Westpac is Australia’s oldest bank, providing services to over 12 million customers throughout Australia, New Zealand and the world. 

Despite being one of the largest banks in Australia, Westpac has been the involved in a number of scandals over the years, which have harmed its reputation.  

This includes Australia’s biggest breach of anti-money laundering laws in 2020, which resulted in the largest fine ever issued in Australian corporate history, A$1.3 billion.

4. National Australia Bank

Another big four bank in the list, National Australia Bank, or NAB, was formed in 1981 by the merger of the National Bank of Australasia and the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. NAB provides banking services to 9 million clients in Australia, New Zealand and around the world. 

Unlike the two banks we’ve seen so far, NAB generates the biggest portion of its profit from its business banking operations, meaning that its performance in business lending plays a big role in overall performance. 

In the table below, we’ve compiled some of the highlights from its trading update from the quarter ended 30 June 2025. 

Source: National Australia Bank – Third Quarter Trading Update 

5. Wesfarmers

Wesfarmers began life in 1914 as a cooperative of Western Australian farmers but has since evolved into a major retail conglomerate and one of the biggest companies in Australia.  

Wesfarmers has a diverse array of operations which it runs across a number of different divisions: 

• Bunnings Group 
• Kmart Group 
• Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy and Fertilisers 
• Officeworks 
• Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety 
• Wesfarmers Health 

Of these businesses, Bunnings Group, a hardware and garden centre chain, contributes the most to Wesfarmers’s top and bottom lines. 

In the year ended 30 June 2025, Bunnings Group accounted for 43% and 55% of total revenue and earnings respectively, making this division’s performance crucial to Wesfarmers’s overall performance. 

6. CSL

Established in 1916 as the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, CSL is the largest biotechnology company in Australia and one of the largest in the world, operating in more than 100 countries. 

CSL operates three divisions, CSL Behring – which is a leader in rare and serious diseases, CSL Seqirus – one of the world’s largest influenza vaccination providers, and CSL Vifor – which operates in iron deficiency and nephrology. 

CSL Plasma, itself a subsidiary of CSL Behring, is a dominant force in plasma-derived therapies, operating one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated plasma collection networks.  

As well as having a large portfolio of plasma-derived therapies, vaccines and genetic medicines, CSL also has a strong product pipeline, investing about 10% of revenue into Research and Development in the year ending 30 June 2025. 

7. ANZ Bank

The big four Australian banks dominate the top places in the list of largest Australian companies, with the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, or ANZ Bank, appearing in seventh place.  

As the name suggests, ANZ Bank operates throughout Australia and New Zealand, with Australia accounting for the majority of business. However, it also operates in around 30 other markets, serving around 8.5 million retail and business customers.  

ANZ has won a number of accolades, recognising it as a leading institutional bank in Australia. In the table below, we have highlighted some of the top performance metrics from its most recent half year results:

Source: ANZ – Half Year Results 31 March 2025.

8. Macquarie

Macquarie is a global financial services group, providing a wide range of services – including asset management, retail and business banking, and wealth management – in 31 markets around the world.

The company has a strong focus on infrastructure projects – creating, investing in and operating infrastructure assets in sectors including energy, transportation and digital. It is one of the world’s largest infrastructure investment managers.

9. Goodman Group

Goodman Group is a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) which owns, develops and manages properties. The group specialises in infrastructure which is essential for the digital economy, including warehouses, logistics facilities and data centres. 

Data centres are a particular focus for the property group at the moment, accounting for much of its current work in progress. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) driving enormous global demand for data centres, this focus could be a tailwind for Goodman Group in the future. Indeed, the trend has contributed towards Goodman Group’s relatively high valuation. 

10. Fortescue

Founded in 2003, Fortescue Metals Group was a metal mining company primarily focused on producing iron ore. In 2020, Fortescue Future Industries was launched with a focus on producing cleaner energy.

In 2023, these two arms were combined to form Fortescue, a global metals and green energy company.

However, iron ore remains its bread and butter, accounting for around 90% of revenue in the year ended 30 June 2025. The company is one of the world’s largest producers of this metal, shipping 198.4 Mt in 2025.

Sector Analysis of Australia’s Largest Companies

As you may have noticed from the previous section, the 10 largest companies in Australia are dominated by the banking industry.  

All four of Australia’s “Big Four” banks make the list - as well as financial services company Macquarie, which also provides banking services – highlighting the banking sector dominance. Indeed, the five banks make up around 57% of the total market capitalisation of all 10 companies. 

After banks, mining is the most represented industry, with two entries in the list of largest companies by market cap. Between them, Fortescue and BHP account for approximately 21% of the total market capitalisation of the top 10 companies in Australia. 

The Largest Australian Companies by Revenue

Now we know the biggest Australian companies in terms of market cap, what about by revenue? The table below highlights the 10 largest companies in Australia based on revenue.

Source: TradingView. Data Captured: 8 September 2025.

You will note that there are a few entries in the top 10 largest companies by revenue which don’t appear when we measure by market capitalisation. 

It might seem strange that a company which generates higher revenue would not be valued higher by the market than one which produces less revenue.

However, it’s important to note that although a company’s revenue might be higher, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is more profitable, as it may have higher operating costs.

One way investors can compare the profitability of different companies is by conducting a profit margin analysis. Profit margin expresses a company’s profit as a percentage of total revenue, and essentially shows how much of each dollar of revenue is kept as profit.

Furthermore, the market values companies based on more than just revenue and profit. A company’s share price – and, consequently, market cap – is also a reflection of its future growth potential.

A company might generate lower revenues and profit today, but if investors think it will experience enormous growth in the future, it might receive a higher valuation.

Investment Considerations for Australian Blue Chips

There are many metrics which are used by investors to help make investment decisions, two of which are the price to earnings (P/E) ratio and dividend yield.  

The P/E ratio essentially measures how much the market is willing to pay for each dollar of a company’s earnings and can be used to assess whether a company is over or undervalued in comparison with its competitors. A dividend yield expresses a company’s annual dividend payment per share as a percentage of the current share price.  

All of the 10 largest Australian companies by market capitalisation currently pay dividends to their shareholders, although it’s important to bear in mind that future dividends are never guaranteed.  

In the table below, we have compiled the P/E ratios and dividend yields for each of these companies.

Source: Admiral Markets Macroscope. Data Captured: 11 September 2025.

We can see that, at the time of writing, ANZ Bank offers the highest dividend yield, whilst Goodman Group has the lowest dividend yield. In terms of P/E ratios, Goodman Group has the highest and Fortescue has the lowest.

P/E ratio is most useful when comparing companies within the same industry. For example, if we consider the banking companies listed in this article, we can see that four of them – Macquarie, ANZ, National Australia Bank and Westpac – have price to earnings ratios between 15 and 20.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, on the other hand, is valued much higher, at 28 times earnings.  

Aside from financial metrics, for international investors, a further important consideration to bear in mind is currency risk.  

When investing in Australian stocks, potential returns are not only influenced by share performance, but also by how the Australian dollar performs compared to the investors home currency. Investors may consider hedging strategies to attempt to mitigate potential downsides caused by exchange rate fluctuations.

Sources:

• ASX Market Statistics
• Unless otherwise indicated, all company market capitalisation, price to earnings and dividend yield figures as of 8 September 2025 and sourced from the Admiral Markets Macroscope. 

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