Forbes Magazine reports annually on the world’s 2000 largest publicly traded corporations and ClickAfrique has a look to see how African corporations have performed. The list ranks corporations by a combination of sales, profits, assets and market capitalisation.
South African companies as would be expected given South Africa’s economic dominance of the African economic landscape top the list. South African giants Standard Bank Group, FirstRand, Sasol, MTN Group and Sanlam are amongst the eight South African companies on the list.
Royal Caribbean Cruise lines, which ranks amongst the largest cruise companies in the world, gives Liberia its sole entry on the list at number eight. Royal Caribbean Cruise lines, although headquartered in Miami, like quite a few other maritime organisations, is incorporated in Liberia earning the country an expected place in the global financial spotlight.
The only other non-South African based company on the list is Egyptian company Orascom Telecom, which is a subsidiary of the Orascom Conglomerate founded by Engr Onsi Sawiris.
The top ten largest companies in 2008 are shown below:
Standard Bank Group
Rank in Africa: 1
Forbes Global Rank: 266
Country: South Africa
Industry: Banking
Sales ($Bil): 18.41
Profits ($Bil): 1.54
Assets ($Bil): 137.97
Market Value ($Bil): 17.39
Profile: Founded in South Africa in 1862, Standard Bank Group is Africa’s largest company and operates in 38 countries around the world, including 18 in Africa. 2007 was a busy year for the company, with the company acquiring controlling interest in IBTC Chartered Bank in Nigeria in August 2007. This gave subsidiary Stanbic Bank Nigeria Limited significant presence in the Nigerian market.
In the same month, Standard Bank Group also acquired a 67% share of the Turkish bank Dundas Ünlü Securities and now operates in Turkey under the name of Standard Ünlü.
In October 2007 the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China acquired a stake of about 20% in Standard Bank for US$5.5bn. Half the stake will come from ICBC acquiring existing shares and half from new shares. ICBC will also get two seats on the board of directors.
FirstRand
Rank in Africa: 2
Forbes Global Rank: 308
Country: South Africa
Industry: Banking
Sales ($Bil): 18.41
Profits ($Bil): 1.54
Assets ($Bil): 137.97
Market Value ($Bil): 17.39
Profile: FirstRand was created in April 1998 through the merger of the financial service interests of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Limited (AAC) and RMB Holdings Limited (RMBH).
With International operations on all the continents, FirstRand has a strong presence in South Africa, where it employs 42 882 people and has a retail franchise footprint of 766 branches and 4997 ATM'S in Southern Africa alone.
Sasol
Rank in Africa: 3
Forbes Global Rank: 349
Country: South Africa
Industry: Oil & Gas
Sales ($Bil): 13.91
Profits ($Bil): 2.41
Assets ($Bil): 16.76
Market Value ($Bil): 32.65
Profile: Founded in 1950, Sasol is the largest company on the continent involved in mining, energy, chemicals and synfuels. In particular, they produce petrol and diesel profitably from coal and natural gas using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The company has factories at Sasolburg and Secunda and has taken a stake in projects under construction in Qatar (Oryx GTL), Iran (Arya Polymers) and Nigeria (Escravos GTL).
MTN Group
Rank in Africa: 4
Forbes Global Rank: 522
Country: South Africa
Industry: Telecommunications
Sales ($Bil): 7.35
Profits ($Bil): 1.51
Assets ($Bil): 13.44
Market Value ($Bil): 29.72
Profile: Launched in 1994, MTN Group is Africa’s largest telecommunications company and is active over 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. As at the end of December 2006, MTN recorded more than 40 million subscribers across its operations.
Sanlam
Rank in Africa: 5
Forbes Global Rank: 631
Country: South Africa
Industry: Insurance
Sales ($Bil): 10.29
Profits ($Bil): 1.03
Assets ($Bil): 47.32
Market Value ($Bil): 5.65
Profile: Established in 1918, Sanlam is one of Africa’s leading financial services group based in South Africa. The company is also involved elsewhere in Africa, Europe and the United Kingdom.
The Sanlam Group conducts its business through Sanlam Limited, the corporate head office and four business clusters - Life Insurance cluster consists of Sanlam Personal Finance (SPF) and Sanlam Employee Benefits (SEB); Short-term Insurance cluster, Santam; the Investment cluster, driven by Sanlam Investment Management and 11 other businesses; and the Independent Financial Services cluster invests in independent entities and intermediary business in the financial services industry.
Telkom
Rank in Africa: 6
Forbes Global Rank: 803
Country: South Africa
Industry: Telecommunications
Sales ($Bil): 7.08
Profits ($Bil): 1.19
Assets ($Bil): 8.03
Market Value ($Bil): 9.67
Profile: Founded in 1991, Telkom is a semi-privatised, state owned wire and wireless telecommunications provider in South Africa. It currently has a monopoly on both handling international connections to and from South Africa on the SAT3 & SAFE backbone lines, which account for the majority of international bandwidth and fixed-line communications.
Impala Platinum Holdings
Rank in Africa: 7
Forbes Global Rank: 815
Country: South Africa
Industry: Materials
Sales ($Bil): 4.46
Profits ($Bil): 1.03
Assets ($Bil): 7.08
Market Value ($Bil): 26.65
Profile: Impala Platinum (Implats) has swiftly become the world's second-largest platinum producer, producing 2 million ounces of platinum annually from its mines in South Africa (the Bushveld Complex) and Zimbabwe (the Great Dyke). The company also produces palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium (all platinum group metals) as well as nickel and other metals.
The bulk of Implats' platinum is sold to the chemical, electronics, glass, and petroleum industries in North America and Asia with exploration projects in China and elsewhere in Southern Africa.
Royal Caribbean
Rank in Africa: 8
Forbes Global Rank: 855
Country: Liberia
Industry: Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure
Sales ($Bil): 6.15
Profits ($Bil): 0.60
Assets ($Bil): 14.98
Market Value ($Bil): 7.47
Profile: Established in 1969, Royal Caribbean currently operates 22 shipsand is perhaps best known for having some of the largest passenger ships in the world (142,000 tons); these are the ships with rock-climbing, ice-skating, and in-line skating facilities; Johnny Rockets diners; promenade shopping malls; and more. In fact, the rock-climbing walls have proven to be so popular that RCI has added them to the entire fleet.
Orascom Telecom
Rank in Africa: 9
Forbes Global Rank: 865
Country: Egypt
Industry: Telecommunications
Sales ($Bil): 4.44
Profits ($Bil): 0.73
Assets ($Bil): 8.64
Market Value ($Bil): 16.61
Profile: Founded in 1998, Egypt’s largest company, Orascom is like a wireless oracle for the developing world. It is a leading provider of wireless communications services in the Middle East, including Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The GSM (global system for mobile communications) network operator has more than 35 million subscribers. Since its inception, the company has expanded and reshaped its holdings through a long series of acquisitions. The company's 2000 listing on the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange set a record at the time as Egypt's largest IPO. The family of chairman Naguib Sawiris owns 57% of the company.
Investec
Rank in Africa: 10
Forbes Global Rank: 904
Country: South Africa/United Kingdom
Industry: Diversified Financials
Sales ($Bil): 3.85
Profits ($Bil): 0.67
Assets ($Bil): 51.65
Market Value ($Bil): 4.82
Profile: Investec is an international specialist banking group that provides its select clients with innovative products and services. Its South African operations mirror those of the international Investec group, focusing on investment banking, treasury and specialised finance, private client activities and asset management.
Through a Dual Listed Companies structure, Investec has primary listings in South Africa and the UK. Investec Limited is one of the top 30 largest companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) and Investec plc is one of the top 200 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.