Top-10 companies in Africa

The Africa Report published recently their list of Top-500 African companies in terms of turnover (2015 figures). Let’s focus on the Top-10. As the tables below show, at the level of the continent there’s hardly any variation relative to the previous rank, while sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) shows more action.

Top climbers:

• Energies Nouvelles (#233), construction, Republic of Congo, $558.5 Million turnover (+74%).
• Ercinn (#316), construction, Ivory Coast, $399.5 Million turnover (+73%).
• Pioneers Holding (#231), financial services, Egypt, $559.7 Million turnover (+65%).
• Palm Hills Development Co. (#279), construction, Egypt, $458.7 Million turnover (+56%).
• PSG Group (#104), diversified, South Africa, $1.29 Billion turnover (+37%).

Top fallers:

• Oando (#154), petroleum services, Nigeria, $802.6 Million turnover (-65%).
• Middle East Oil Refineries (#91), petroleum services, Egypt, $1.53 Billion turnover (-56%).
• Egypt Kuwait Holding Co. (#359), diversified, Egypt, $341.2 Million turnover (-52%).
• Sonangol (#2), petroleum, Angola, $17.27 Billion turnover (-49%).
• Grindrod (#198), transport, South Africa, $661 Million turnover (-45%).

Top-10 Companies in Africa

Rank ‘16	Rank ‘15	Company	Industry	Country
1	1	Sonatrach	Petroleum	Algeria
2	2	Sonangol	Petroleum	Angola
3	4	The Bidvest Group	Diversified	South Africa
4	3	Sasol	Chemicals	South Africa
5	5	Eskom	Utilities	South Africa
6	6	MTN Group	ICT / Telecoms	South Africa
7	7	Steinhoff International Holdings	Wood and paper	South Africa
8	8	ShopRite Holdings	Retail	South Africa
9	10	BidCorp (ex Bidvest Foods)	Agribusiness	South Africa
10	9	Imperial Holdings	Diversified	South Africa

Top 10 Companies in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa)

Rank ‘16	Rank ‘15	Company	Industry	Country
2	2	Sonangol	Petroleum	Angola
19	19	Real Estate Investments Zambia	Construction	Zambia
35	27	MTN Nigeria	ICT / Telecoms	Nigeria
45	52	Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage	Refining	Côte d’Ivoire
53	59	Dangote Cement	Construction	Nigeria
57	66	Ethiopian Airlines	Air transport	Ethiopia
68	80	Safaricom	ICT / Telecoms	Kenya
70	78	Total Kenya	Petroleum services	Kenya
76	88	Flour Mills of Nigeria	Agribusiness	Nigeria
79	87	Kansanshi Mining	Mining	Zambia

Only 3 sectors (construction, textiles and utilities) saw their overall turnover grow in 2015. By far, the largest climbers were the 50 construction companies in the ranking, which recorded 14% growth. In fact, 3 out of the 5 top climbers operate in the construction sector. All other sectors experienced decreases in overall turnover from 2014 to 2015.

For 3 years running, Africa’s Top-500 companies have been producing lower overall turnover. Since 2012 this figure has decreased from $736.8 billion to $610.4 billion. Besides, profits also crashed down hard between 2014 and 2015.

Potential explanations for this negative situation might be:

• Currency shifts: two of Africa’s largest economies, Egypt and Nigeria, experienced foreign-currency crunches in 2016. They both combine for 3 out of the 5 top fallers in the continent.

• Global uncertainty: the world is facing an environment of international political uncertainty that will surely impact several other socio-economic aspects such as trade, migration or investment. Unfortunately, Africa might suffer from it as well.

Variations in the Top-10 companies in SSA (excluding South Africa).

• Companies that came out of the Top-10:
  • Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures, petroleum, Cameroon.
  • Oando, petroleum services, Nigeria. Oando has experienced the harshest drop in the Top-500 companies (-65% in their turnover from 2014 to 2015).
  • Compagnie Miniére de l’Ogooué, mining, Gabon.
• Companies that came in the Top-10:
  • Flour Mills of Nigeria, agribusiness, Nigeria.
  • Kansanshi Mining, mining, Zambia.

Cameroon has lost their only representation in the Top-10 in SSA as Société Nationale des Hydrocarburs has dropped remarkably since last year. On the other hand, Zambia has gained one more spot within the Top-10. Kansanshi Mining has gained 8 positions and now joins the other Zambian company in the top of the ranking, Real Estate Investments Zambia.

The outlook is a bit gloomy. But Africa’s potential is there for the long run. It will take patient capital to build a brighter future. What do you think?

Nadim Elayan, Research Assistant at IESE Business School, collaborated in this article.

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