Feb 14 2009 |
more articles from
|
Saudi Aramco retains top spot on DS100 list
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) , the world's top oil producer, retained its top spot in the Dinar Standard's 5th annual ranking of the top 100 businesses in the 57-member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) recording an estimated 8 percent rise in its revenues from the year before.The 2008 DS100 list, which was released yesterday, had 54 publicly traded firms from 13 countries compared to the previous year's 57 firms from 13 countries.
With $1.21 trillion in total revenues, the 2008 DS100 list recorded a respectable 12.3 percent growth in revenue over the previous year. This is down from the 14.5 percent growth seen during the previous year's ranking. The 21 integrated oil and gas companies on the list continued their dominance representing 64 percent of the total DS100 company revenues.
There were 13 Saudi companies on the DS100 list in 2008 compared to 15 companies in 2007. They were Saudi Aramco (ranking 1), Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (No. 8), Saudi Telecom Company (No. 23), Saudi Oger Company (No. 26), Saudi Electricity Company (No. 40), Dallah Albaraka Group (No. 45), Saudi Binladin Group (No. 48), Saad Group of Companies (No. 53), Consolidated Contractors International Company (No. 55), National Commercial Bank (No. 64), Samba Financial Group (No. 82), Savola Group (No. 84), and Al-Rajhi Bank (No. 86).
" SABIC has been one of the fastest growing companies in this year's ranking (46 percent year-over-year revenue growth) and its global standing now symbolizes the potential of the other Saudi-based enterprises to truly establish themselves as world-class companies," he said, adding: "With big thinking and innovative business strategies, we see manufacturing companies such as Savola leapfrogging to become global marketers such as Nestle, Kraft, and Unilever of the world."
Most of the Saudi companies with top positions on the DS100 list also featured on the Top 100 Saudi Companies published in Arab News in June 2008. Those that did not feature in the Arab News ranking last year still remain among the biggest companies in the region.
"As the global economic crisis persists, the reserves built by many DS100 companies through strong performance over the last few years should be a promising source of stability for OIC markets," Shikoh said.
He added: "In the past few years we have seen many companies on the DS100 list such as SABIC , Zain, and Ulker emerge as global players. The exciting opportunity is to see how other DS100 companies will turn this global downturn as an opportunity to truly break onto the global competitive landscape." However, the biggest year over year growth in revenue was logged by basic material (chemical, iron, copper, other) companies at 34 percent with Goldas from Turkey rising 72 percent, followed by SABIC , recording an impressive 46 percent growth. The agriculture/food sector also grew big (20 percent) benefiting from increased global food demand, with Malaysian IOI Group (64 percent growth) leading that sector.
Other fastest growing companies in the ranking included, Kazkommertsbank (107 percent growth, Kazakhstan), Boydak Holding (44 percent growth, Turkey), Independent Petroleum Group (44 percent growth, Kuwait), Kuwait Finance House (44 percent growth), Pakistan State Oil (41 percent growth), Ezz Steel (40 percent growth, Egypt), and Iranian Mines -- IMIDRO (39 percent growth).
This year's ranking, which covered financials amidst early stages of the current global recession (end-of-year 2007 data), showed a decrease in growth of the construction, energy, and diversified sector companies.
The construction sector suffered the biggest drop in this year's ranking, with revenue growth of only 12 percent compared to 77 percent the previous year, with Emaar Properties of the United Arab Emirates and Consolidated Contractors International Co. of Saudi Arabia showing one of the sharpest drops.
Globally, the DS100 companies represent a mere 10.5 percent of the $11.5 trillion in revenues attributed to the global 100 companies from Fortune magazine's 2008 Global 500 list. This has remained unchanged from the previous year. Petronas (Malaysia), SABIC , and KOC Holding (Turkey) remain the only three DS100 companies also on the Fortune 500 Global list.
The minimum threshold to be on the 2008 DS100 list was $2.29 billion in revenues.
By Khalil Hanware
© Arab News 2009
© Copyright Zawya. All Rights Reserved.
Post Your Comment