Three Russian corporations have made Fortune magazine's latest rating of the top 500 earners. Yukos, which made the list for the first time with veterans Gazprom and LUKoil, topped its efficiency indicator. According to Fortune, Yukos is the world leader by investment return and No. 2 by profit margins.

Fortune, which has published ratings based on company earnings since 1955, has posted its 500 list for top earners in 2002, due for publication Monday, on its web site already.

Russia is represented on the list by Gazprom, with sales of $19.55 billion it is ranked at 235; and LUKoil and Yukos, with revenues of $13.45 billion and $10.91 billion and rankings of 377 and 461, respectively.

"Russian oil and gas company earnings have been multiplying over the last few years, making it possible for them to take their place alongside global corporations," Troika Dialog analyst Valery Nesterov said.

Nesterov outlined three reasons for the growth: higher world oil prices, higher production and a larger share of export accounting for sales.

Steven Dashevsky, head of research at Aton, pointed out that Fortune did not take into account Yukos' ongoing merger with Sibneft.

"Next year, when the merger is finished, the new company will be able to rank higher in the rating," he said.

However, it is still difficult for domestic firms to compete with global giants like Wal-Mart, whose earnings equaled $246.5 billion in 2002, giving it first place two years in a row. The top 10 also included oil and gas corporations ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch/Shell and BP and automakers Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Toyota.

Nevertheless, Yukos, in its first ever appearance, outran global leaders in efficiency. Mikhail Khodorkovsky's company is No. 1 in return on capital investments, which is defined as the ratio of profits over assets (21.2 percent). LUKoil ranked 39 by this indicator (8.4 percent), while ExxonMobil was even further down at 48 (7.5 percent).

Additionally, Yukos ranked No. 2 in profit margins, or the ratio of earnings to profits, which equaled 28 percent. Wyeth ranked No. 1 by this indicator and Microsoft No. 3. Gazprom ranked 11th (19.8 percent) and LUKoil 34th (13.7 percent).

"Russian oil and gas companies win over foreign competitors because their costs are lower," Troika's Nesterov said.

According to his data, Russian costs before operational taxes and amortization are two to three times lower than that of Western giants because they use cheaper Russian services and equipment.

However, Dashevsky evaluated the Fortune placement of Russian corporations skeptically.

"You're joking if you think Yukos is more efficient than Microsoft. It's just an accounting trick," he said.

According to Dashevsky, it all depends on how assets are accounted for, with most of Russian oil companies' assets being inherited from Soviet times.

"During privatization, these assets were written onto the balance of these companies at discount prices, calculated using an [inflated] exchange rate of 60 kopeks to the dollar. As a result it looks like our companies have miniscule assets compared to Western competitors," he explained.

Many companies have re-evaluated their assets in the past few years but Yukos has taken a conservative position in this respect, Dashevsky said. This is proven by the fact that Yukos, with assets worth $6.1 billion, produces as much as LUKoil, which has assets of $13.5 million, he said.