DOHA: Two Qatari entities, QNB and Industries Qatar (IQ), have found their place in the top global rankings in 2011, as Financial Times (FT) released its quarterly list of the world's top 500 companies at the end of December. The list uses market capitalisation based on a company's price to calculate rankings.
Qatar's leading companies have made substantial progress in the rankings, according to analysis by QNB Capital.
QNB Group and IQ account for 0.2 percent of the total top 500 market capitalisation. QNB Group came in at 278th place with a market capitalisation of US$26.6bn, up from $19.9bn at the end of 2010.
During 2011, QNB Group's market capitalisation has been boosted by a 6.8 percent increase in its share price and a rights issue for 25 percent of the group's shares. The strong performance of QNB Group's share price was driven by rising profitability and strong growth of total assets. Net income at the bank has risen by 32 percent in 2011 to $2.1bn and total assets rose by 35 percent to $82.9bn.
QNB Group has made rapid progress up the rankings from 500th in March 2011 to 278th in December 2011. According to QNB Capital, falling global equity markets have led to a drop in the market capitalisation of most of the companies in the top 500 rankings. The increase in QNB's share price has therefore led to a significant improvement in its rank by market capitalisation.
IQ has also moved up the rankings from 461st at the end of 2010 to 384th in December 2011. Over this period IQ's share price increased by 15.5 percent. IQ's strong performance was a consequence of strong profits, which rose to $1.7bn in the third quarter of 2011, a 35 percent increase over the same period in 2010. IQ's profit growth was driven by a recovery in the petrochemicals sector, which has benefited from recent sustained high oil prices.
In Qatar, strong growth and high prices in the hydrocarbons sector have supported growth in non-hydrocarbons sectors, presenting Qatari companies with good opportunities for growth.
ExxonMobil was the top company in the rankings with a total market capitalisation of $406bn.
The total market capitalisation of the top global 500 companies declined by 8.7 percent during 2011, to total $22.9trn, compared with $25.1trn at the end of 2010.
Banking was the most strongly represented sector in the company rankings. It accounted for 14.1 percent of overall market capitalisation and included 67 companies. The banking sector was followed by oil and gas producers with a 13.7 percent share that included 43 companies.
© The Peninsula 2012
