Global Courant 2023-05-12 11:00:00
North Africa is the second most important region in our annual survey of Africa’s Top 250 Companies, accounting for 70 new entrants and 14.3% of the total market value. This is an increase of three places from our ranking last year; only a small decrease of 0.35 percentage points in their combined value.
Egypt leads the way in the number of companies represented in the continental list, with 33 new entrants out of Morocco’s 29. This means that there are two more Egyptian companies and one less Moroccan than in last year’s figures.
This slight change in the balance of power is also reflected in the value of listed companies. Moroccan companies are worth nearly double their Egyptian counterparts, at 8.8% of the value of the Top 250, but this is down 0.4 percentage points from last year. Ranked Egyptian companies are now worth 5.7%, up 1.6 percentage points from 2022. However, these changes are still too small to suggest they are part of a broader Egyptian recovery.
More importantly, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s plans will be to sell all or part of dozens of state and military-controlled companies, including those in the port, hotel, banking, energy and gas sectors, with the aim of to rebalance the economy and the gas industry. a massive increase in the size of the private sector from 30% to 65% by 2025.
This target, set in 2022 and in just three years, seems overly ambitious, but at least indicates that the government wants to include more companies on the list. However, such commitments have been made by Cairo in the past, but only limited progress has been made.
Despite Egypt’s leading position in the continental ranking, Morocco has a larger share of the top 20 companies in North Africa, including the country’s four major banks – led by Attijariwafa Bank.
Commercial International Bank (CIB) is Egypt’s highest ranked company, ranking third in the regional table. Despite a very slight fall in value from $5 billion last year to $4.9 billion in this year’s ranking, it has risen six positions to 27th in our Pan-African ranking, benefiting from larger declines in the market value of many other businesses.
In line with the general trend of cross-border investment in the banking sector, CIB opened its first branch in Kenya in April, following its full takeover of Mayfair CIB three months earlier by purchasing its remaining 49% stake in the bank. CIB intends to use Kenya as a base for further expansion in the region.
Read our other regional rankings
The regional Top 20 for North Africa
The African Business Top 250 Companies survey focuses on the largest companies on the African stock exchanges, with rankings determined by market capitalization (total value of listed shares) as of March 31, 2023. Some of the African giants not in the Top 250 ranking are public companies, including state-owned companies such as Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Sonangol in Angola.
The Top 250 survey excludes companies that have African ancestry and roots, but no longer earn at least 50% of their revenue in Africa. Companies that derive more than 50% of their turnover from Africa are excluded if they are not listed on an African stock exchange.
The table below summarizes the top 20 companies in our survey from the North African region, along with their position in the overall ranking.
