Aramco ranked No. 1 in the muslim world

Saudi Aramco, the world's top oil producer, is once again the largest business enterprise in the Muslim world, according to business strategy e-magazine Dinar Standard. Its DS100, a ranking of the Top 100 businesses in the 57 member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), is published annually.

In 2007, there were 15 Saudi companies on the list. In addition to Saudi Aramco, which saw a 19 percent rise in annual revenue, the other Saudi companies on the fourth annual DS100 are Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (ranking 12th), Saudi Telecom Co. (No. 20), Saudi Oger Company Ltd. (No. 26), Saudi Electricity Company (No. 35), Dallah Albaraka Group (No. 36), Saudi Binladin Group (No. 39), Saad Group of Companies (No. 50), Consolidated Contractors International Company (No. 53), National Commercial Bank (No. 64), Abdul Latif Jameel Group (No. 65), Al-Rajhi Bank (No. 75), Samba Financial Group (No. 78), Savola Group (No. 81) and Riyad Bank (No. 93).

The ranking showcases the continuing growth of the Muslim world economies with $1.08 trillion in total revenues and a healthy 14.6 percent in revenue growth compared to the previous year.

Due to rising oil prices, which are hovering around $90 a barrel currently, the 20 integrated oil and gas companies on the list continued their dominance representing 65 percent of the total DS100 company revenues.

However, the biggest year-on-year growth in revenues was logged by construction services companies at 74 percent, followed by 43 percent by the transportation services sector, 34 percent by basic materials (chemical, iron, copper, other) sector and 27 percent by the finance sector. The integrated oil and gas companies logged a year-on-year revenue growth of 21 percent.

Overall, the energy sector continues to confirm its dominance based on the fact that nine out of the ten top companies on the list are all state-owned integrated oil and gas companies of which Kuwait Petroleum (No. 3) showed the largest growth, 38 percent, in estimated revenues compared to previous year.

"This year's ranking highlights the anchor role oil revenues are playing in aggressive diversification of OIC member state economies," said Rafi-uddin Shikoh, editor of Dinar Standard. "We see a higher level of maturity in management practices among the DS100 companies which is leading many to embark on global leadership plans. This is a very healthy trend," he added.

Most of the Saudi companies with top positions on the DS100 list also featured on the Arab News list of Top 100 Saudi Companies published in November 2007. Those which did not feature in the Arab News ranking last year still remain among the biggest companies in the region.

Saudi Oger, the Saudi Arabia-based construction and telecom services company, showed an impressive year-on-year revenue growth of 142 percent followed by Agility of Kuwait (124 percent).

Other big gainers include Zain of Kuwait (108 percent), Kazakhmys of Kazakhstan (94 percent), KOC Holding of Turkey (90 percent), Consolidated Contractors International (79 percent), Emaar Properties of the UAE (67 percent), Lion Group of Malaysia (52 percent) and IOI Group of Malaysia (47 percent).

Turkish companies continue to dominate the list with 24 enterprises, followed by 17 from Malaysia, 15 from Saudi Arabia, nine from Indonesia, and seven from the UAE. Other countries represented include Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Bahrain and Algeria.

While a majority of the companies on the DS100 are publicly traded, the bulk of the total revenue, more than 65 percent, is attributed to the 27 government-owned companies on the list signifying their powerful roles in the respective economies.

The number of publicly-listed companies on the DS100 modestly increased in this year's ranking. The 2007 DS100 list has 57 publicly-traded firms from 13 countries compared to the previous year's 55 firms from 11 countries. The minimum threshold to be on the 2007 DS100 list was $1.72 billion.