Lotte Shopping Co., South Korea’s top department store chain operator, said Sunday that it has ranked third among global department stores on Forbes’ annual Global 2000 list of the biggest publicly traded companies, up one notch from last year.

France’s PPR SA ranks as the world’s biggest department store, followed by Macy’s of the United States.

However, Lotte took the top ranking among Asian department stores.

The U.S. economic magazine announced the list in terms of assets, sales, net profit and market value of global companies since 2003. The magazine set up the department store category for the first time in 2011.

Lotte posted US$34.6 billion in assets, $22.2 billion in sales, $1 billion in net profit and $10.3 billion in market value last year.

Among global companies overall, Lotte ranked 470th, up from 518th in 2012. (Yonhap News)