Cargill, the giant commodities company, is atop...

Cargill, the giant commodities company, is atop the Forbes list of 400 largest private companies for the fourth consecutive year. The Minneapolis-based company’s 1987 revenue totaled $38.2 billion, Forbes reports in its Dec. 12 issue. That was up 18% from the previous year and was more than double that of the second-largest company on the list. Koch Industries, the Wichita, Kan.-based oil company, had sales of $16 billion. Safeway Stores of Oakland was fourth with revenue of $13 billion, and San Francisco-based Bechtel Group was 12th at $4.5 billion.