FOR THE LIFE OF US

Longtime FP500 readers will know that Manulife Financial Corp. does not like how it is forced to record revenue because the insurance industry has to do mark-to-market accounting, which means including realized and unrealized gains or losses (and other assets) as revenue. As a result, it often experiences wide swings in official revenue, which was the case once again this year: Manulife posted revenue of $34.4 billion, compared to $54.5 billion last year. Correspondingly, it dropped from the top of the ranking to No. 7. It also disputes that a one-time revenue MANULIFE FINANCIALCORP. reduction of almost $8 billion, due to premiums ceded to a closed block reinsurance transaction, should not count. Add that back in and Manulife’s revenues would be $42.4 billion, which would make it No. 3.

What happened at the other top insurers? Sun Life Financial Inc. (No. 21) reported a 25.2% decrease in revenue to $19.3 billion, and Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (No. 59) posted a 14.9% decrease to $8.2 billion. Revenue dropped at all but one (Green Shield Canada (No. 460) of the 11 companies classified as life insurers. On the property insurer side, only three of the 15 firms recorded a drop in revenue. moving up 109 spots from last year.

There are 283 publicly traded companies on the FP500, of which 272 trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and one — Pivot Technology Solutions Inc. — on the Venture. Five companies solely trade on the New York Stock Exchange, four on the Nasdaq and one — CHC Group Ltd. — on the pink sheets. There were 83 cross-listed TSX companies, including 62 on the NYSE, 17 on the Nasdaq and four on the NYSE MKT. The rest of the FP500 includes 161 private companies, 44 Crown corporations and 12 co-ops.

George Weston Ltd. (No. 1) is the country’s biggest employer for the second year in a row. The food giant that encompasses Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. has 202,400 employees, 1,600 more than last year. Onex Corp. (No. 13), the second-largest employer, has 144,000 workers, 48,000 fewer than last year. The smallest employer was gold streamer Franco-Nevada Corp. with 29 workers driving $566.9 million in revenue, which works out to $19.5 million per employee.