Tom Minney examines the regional rankings in our annual survey of Africa’s Top 250 companies North African companies score the biggest gains
To view our ranking of the top 20 companies in North Africa, click here .
In terms of increased share of the total, the three North African markets score the biggest gains, increasing the total number of companies in the ranking to 83, up from 70 in 2019. Tunisia has seven more companies bringing its total to 12, after falling from seven in 2018 to five last year. Morocco has added four to reach 30 companies on the list and Egypt has added two to reach 41.
In terms of companies on the top 250 list, Egypt and Morocco are second and third ranked after South Africa, as last year. To view our full ranking of Africa’s Top 250 Companies, click here .
Although the total market capitalisation of all the region’s companies is down from last year’s $98bn to $78.7bn this year, the share of the total is up marginally to 13.2%.
The biggest companies in the region are listed on the Bourse de Casablanca, including Maroc Telecom, up from #10 last year to #8 despite a 16% fall in market capitalisation to $11.1bn, and Attijariwafa Bank, up from #17 to #15 this year despite market capitalisation down 24% to $7bn.
The Egyptian Exchange is home to Egypt’s Commercial International Bank whose $6.1bn market capitalisation is down only 0.7% and enough to move it up the ranking from last year’s #27 to #18, and Casablanca hosts Morocco’s Banque Centrale Populaire with market capitalisation of $4.1bn and ranked at #28.
Casablanca’s MASI Free Float All Shares Index is down 17.4% in Moroccan dirhams, and the Egyptian Exchange’s EGX30 index has crashed a massive 33%, although the impact is reduced because the Egyptian pound, up nearly 10%, is one of the few currencies to have climbed in value against the US dollar over the last 12 months. Tunisia’s dinar is the other to have gained against the greenback, up 4.5%.
Few commentators are ready to outline growth prospects in the region, which has been massively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time of compiling the survey, Egypt has the sad distinction of having the highest number of cases in Africa, followed by South Africa then Morocco, while fourth-placed Algeria had the most recorded deaths, followed by Egypt.
Morocco’s High Commission for Planning reports that 57% […]