A worker?fixes a board bearing the logo of Sinopec. [CFP]

Sinopec Group and CNPC, China's two largest oil companies, took the top spots among China's 100 largest multinationals with 522.6 billion yuan (US$82.35 billion) and 519.8 billion yuan (US$81.9 billion) in overseas assets respectively, according to a report released by the China Enterprise Confederation and China Enterprise Directors Association.

The report, the first of its kind issued in China, ranked the top 100 Chinese non-financial enterprises that possess foreign assets, conduct sales overseas and hire foreign employees. The firms were ranked according to their total foreign assets?accumulated during?year of 2010.

According to the report, the Chinese top 100 multinationals had combined overseas assets of 3.25 trillion yuan (US$512.2 billion), presenting 21.1 percent of their total assets; they realized a combined sale of 3.1 trillion yuan (US$488.7 billion), occupying 14.82 percent of their total sales; they employed 329,000 staff overseas, accounting for 4.17 percent of their total employees.

The report found that the Transnationality Index (TNI), a rating for multinational corporations, for the top 100 largest Chinese multinationals was only 13.37 percent, much lower than that of their foreign counterparts, which scored 60.78 percent. China's score also fell behind the top 100 transnational corporations from developing countries, which rated at 40.13 percent. Individual TNI ratings for China's 100 largest multinationals are largely below 30 percent, with only nine companies breaking 30 percent. These firms included the Zhejiang Geely Group, Sinopec Group and Suntech.

The report said China's multinationals are largely still at a preliminary stage of development as their transnationality ratings are still very low.

China's business press carried the story above on Wednesday.