Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top maker of smartphones, memory chips and flat-panel TVs, joined the elite 25 companies on the annual Global 2000 list of biggest publicly traded companies released by Forbes, ranking 20th this year, up six notches from last year.

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's leading automaker, ranked 89th, also up from last year's 96th spot, according to the list on the Forbes' Web site on Friday.

A total of 65 South Korean firms, including POSCO (184th), Shinhan Financial Group (251st) and Kia Motors Corp. (268th), joined the Forbes list this year. In 2012, 68 South Korean companies were included on the list.

Samsung saw its net profit jump 73.3 percent on-year to 23.85 trillion won (US$21.3 billion) last year. Annual sales and operating income reached 201.1 trillion won and 29.05 trillion won, respectively.

The stronger bottom line was largely powered by robust sales of its Galaxy smartphone series and tablet PCs. Samsung shipped 213 million smartphones in 2012.

The Forbes list is based on an assessment of business areas such as sales, profit, assets and market value.

In total, the Global 2000 companies account for $38 trillion in revenues, $2.43 trillion in profits, $159 trillion in assets and $39 trillion in market value. These firms also employ 87 million people worldwide, according to Forbes.

Two Chinese state banks, ICBC and China Construction Bank, took the No. 1 and 2 positions on the list, Forbes said. (Yonhap News)