Safaricom has made it into the prestigious Forbes Global 2000 list of the leading 2000 public companies in the world. Safaricom is the only Kenyan company on the list.
Among the top 10 companies on the list include ICBC, JPMOrgan Chase, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of America, Apple, Ping An Insurance Group, Bank of China, Royal Dutch Shell and Wells Cargo.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China took the top spot again for the 7th year in a row. This state-owned financial powerhouse oversees more than $4 trillion in assets and employs nearly half a million people. The financial sector overall had a good year, too: The rest of China’s Big Four banks all made the top ten, and JPMorgan Chase climbed up to the second spot due to rising profits thanks in part to major tax cuts.
Of the 61 countries represented on the list, the United States is home to the largest number, 575 companies. China and Hong Kong were next with 309, followed by Japan with 223. The breakdown looks very different than it did when Forbes first published the Global 2000 in 2003. That year, the United States contributed 776 companies while China and Hong Kong had just 43. 2019’s list saw a few notable shakeups: AT&T paid $85 billion for Time Warner in June 2018 and CVS Health acquired insurance giant Aetna for $70 billion a few months later, among others. Lyft was also added to the list after one of several major IPOs.
Out of the 2000 listed companies, only 17 are African. Ten of the public firms are from South Africa, three from Morocco, and two are from Nigeria. Banks and financial institutions dominated the African list.
The list of African companies includes ( Their revenues are included):
- Naspers ($13.5B) – South Africa
- Shoprite Holdings ($11B) – South Africa
- Bid ($9.4B)– South Africa
- Dangote Cement ($2.5B) – Nigeria
- Safaricom ($2.4B) – Kenya
- Banque Centrale Populaire ($2.4B) – Morocco
- FirstRand ($2.3B) – South Africa
- Standard Bank Group ($2.1B) – South Africa
- Sasol ($1.3B) – South Africa
- Absa Group ($1.1B) – South Africa
- NedBank ($1B) – South Africa
- Old Mutual ($1.1B) – South Africa
- Sanlam ($877M) – South Africa
- MTN Group ($658M) – South Africa
- Maroc Telecom ($640M) – Morocco
- Attijariwafa Bank ($608M) – Morocco
- Zenith Bank ($534M) – Nigeria
- RMB Holdings ($4M) – South Africa