MANAMA - Four Bahraini family-run firms have made it to a ranking of the region’s most successful legacy businesses, many of whom have been handed down through several generations.

Representing the kingdom in Forbes Middle East’s annual list of the ‘Top 100 Arab Family Businesses for 2022’ are Y K Almoayyed & Sons Group, YBA Kanoo Group, Abdulla Yousif Fakhro Group and Al Zayani Investments.

Taking 44th place, Y K Almoayyed & Sons is the highest-ranked Bahraini business this year.

The diversified group is chaired by Farouk Almoayyed with a portfolio that includes the automobile, heavy equipment, building materials and electronics sectors.

It represents over 300 international brands, including Nissan, Ford, Infiniti, Lincoln, Renault, Toshiba, Glem Gas and Sony.

YBA Kanoo, having operations in shipping, logistics, travel, industrial and energy, capital and real estate, is in 55th place, which makes it the second-highest Bahraini business on the list.

Khalid Kanoo is the chairman of the group that has over 30 joint ventures, 40 active investments, and wholly-owned activities spread across 22 countries in the Gulf, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Qatar, with expanded activities across Africa, Europe, and Asia.

The oldest Bahraini family enterprise on the list is the Abdulla Yousif Fakhro Group in 80th place.

The group, established in 1888, operates across automotive, industrial products, electronics, telecommunications, insurance, contracting, shipping and logistics.

It has branches in Bahrain, Iraq, the UAE and India, with investments spread across Bahrain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

The group has partnerships with global brands, including Budget Rent-A-Car, BYD Auto, Mobil, Dunlop, Omia, Cisco, OKI, Avaya, McDonald’s, MK, Honeywell, GAC and Alico.

Chairman Esam Fakhro also chairs the Bahrain Cinema Company and Bahrain Islamic Bank and is deputy chairman of the National Bank of Bahrain.

Wrapping up Bahrain’s presence on the list is Al Zayani Investments, ranked 84.

Chaired by Nawaf Al Zayani, the group is also the youngest family enterprise from the kingdom to be featured and has companies operating across industrial, automobile, real estate, F&B and venture capital.

Its joint venture with Closures Systems International, Gulf Closures, is one of the major suppliers of Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola bottle caps in the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent, with an installed capacity to manufacture two billion caps per year.

Of this year’s top 100 family companies, 89 per cent are diversified business conglomerates.

Saudi companies dominate the list with 37 entries, followed by the UAE with 25, and Kuwait with eight.

Together, these three countries constitute 75pc of the top 20 in the list. All family businesses in the top 10 are diversified companies with operations in multiple sectors.

Saudi’s Olayan Financing Group (OFC) tops the ranking for the second consecutive year. Egypt’s Mansour Group and UAE-based Al-Futtaim Group round up the top three.

Diversified business corporations –groups that invest in various sectors and geographies – dominate the ranking with 89 entries.

Three retail firms and two investment companies are the next most populated sectors. Of the top 100 family-run companies in 2022, eight are owned by Arab billionaires.

Algeria-based Cevital Group’s founder Issad Rebrab had a net worth of $5.1 billion as of August 2022, making him the second richest Arab in the world.

To construct this list, Forbes Middle East only considered private businesses or holding companies that are jointly owned or operated by Arab families. The conglomerates were ranked on their holding’s size and performance, business activity, age, legacy, and how diversified the business is in terms of geography and sector.

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