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MANAMA: Seven Bahraini companies feature in Forbes’ ranking of the Middle East’s Top 100 Listed Companies for 2021.
The media company said the list recognises the region’s largest, most valuable, and most profitable companies.
Saudi Arabia has the most companies on the list, with 37 led by Saudi Aramco at the top, followed by the UAE with 20 companies led by the First Abu Dhabi Bank, ranking fourth.
In 27th place, Ahli United Bank (AUB) is the highest ranked company from Bahrain.
The market value of the 100 companies has surged by 30.4pc to $3trn
Largest
The largest lender in the kingdom, AUB was formed in May 2000 by a merger of the United Bank of Kuwait and the Al-Ahli Commercial Bank.
It is one of the largest banks in the Middle East with a workforce of 4,000 serving 151 branches across eight countries.
The bank’s sales are $1.8 billion, profits are $486m, assets are $40.1bn and market value is $7bn.
Adel El Labban has been AUB’s managing director and chief executive since 2000.
Ranked 57, Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) is the second highest Bahraini corporate in the list.
The Islamic wholesale bank operates more than 700 branches across 17 countries including Jordan, Egypt, Tunis, Bahrain and Germany.
ABG’s sales are $2.2bn, profits are $166m, assets are $28.2bn and market value is $259m.
Mazin Manna was appointed as the CEO and president of ABG in January 2021.
Next on the list from the kingdom is National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), ranked 70th.
NBB operates through a network of 29 branches across Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The bank’s sales are $523m, profits are $134.5m, assets are $11.6bn and market value is $3bn.
NBB CEO Jean-Christophe Durand is also a board member for Bahrain Islamic Bank, in which it owns a majority stake.
The Middle East’s largest producer of aluminium, Alba is ranked 71 on the list. The Bahraini smelter has reported sales of $2.8bn, profits of $25.9m, assets of $6.3bn and has a market value of $2.2bn.
Ali Al Baqali has been the CEO of the company since February 2020.
In 75th place is Bahrain’s incumbent telecoms operator Batelco.
Outside of the country, the company has direct and indirect investments across 14 countries, including Jordan, the Maldives, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Mikkel Vinter is the CEO of the company, which has sales of $1bn, profits of $170m, assets of $2.7bn and market value of $2.6bn.
The company recently launched Bahrain’s largest commercial sector data centre covering an area of over 12,000sqm.
The sixth Bahraini company on the list is Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), ranked 77th.
Assets
With assets worth around $10bn as of December 2020, BBK has branches in Bahrain, Kuwait and India, with representative offices in the UAE and Turkey.
The bank led by Abdulrahman Ali Saif as group CEO has reported sales of $467m, profits of $140m and has a market value of $2bn.
Bahrain’s presence in the ranking is rounded off by Arab Banking Corporation (Bank ABC), placed 84th.
Bank ABC is present across 15 countries in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. It is the second-largest listed Bahraini company by assets, worth $30.4bn.
The bank is led by Khaled Kawan as group CEO and has reported sales of $1.3bn, with market value of $901m.
To compile the list, Forbes Middle East gathered data from listed stock exchanges in the Arab world and evaluated companies based on sales, profits, assets and market value.
Listed subsidiaries of other listed companies and companies that hadn’t disclose their 2020 audited financial statements as of May 3, 2021, were excluded.
The banking and financial services sector is still the most represented in the list with 42 entries, down from 46 in 2020.
Five of the top 10 companies are banks.
The real estate and construction sector and industrials sector are joint second with 10 entries each.
Telecommunications is third with nine entries.
With the impact of the pandemic, most firms are not as valuable or profitable as they were a year ago.
The aggregate sales of the 100 companies in 2021 stand at $550bn, while aggregate net income reached $91bn – a drop of 17.9pc and 38.5pc, respectively, compared with the 2020 list.
Combined, the market value of the 100 companies stands at $3 trillion, a surge of 30.4pc compared with 2020 – although Saudi Aramco’s valuation of $1.9trn makes up over 60pc of this total.
Of the 100, 37 companies feature on Forbes’ annual Global 2000 list this year, with Aramco at fifth place, retaining its title as the world’s largest oil company and the Middle East’s most valuable firm.
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