JEDDAH, 18 June 2005 — Eight Saudi companies including Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) and Samba Financial Group have found their places on a list of the world’s top 500 companies published by Financial Times recently.
Other Saudi companies that secured a place on FT500 Global for the year 2005 were: Al-Rajhi Banking & Investment Company, Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), Riyad Bank, Saudi British Bank (SABB) and Etihad Etisalat.
Saudi petrochemical giant SABIC jumped to 22nd position on the new list after it was placed 139th in the previous list for 2004. Four Saudi companies secured their places on the list for the first time, according to Al-Eqtisadiah business daily, a sister publication of Arab News.
None of the Saudi companies listed on FT500 Global for 2004 get a lower position on the new list, except for SEC, which got 223rd position, 10 grades lower than that of last year’s.
STC won the second position among Saudi companies as it was placed 87th on the list. It overtook 35 companies in the new list compared to last year’s list. Samba, which was not listed last year, won the 160th position.
Al-Rajhi was placed 191st on the list at it crossed 237 companies to reach the position compared to its 2004 standing (428). SEC, which was the only Arab company to take a lower position on the list compared to 2004, was 223rd.
Riyad Bank, SABB and Etihad Etisalat entered FT500 Global for the first time, the business daily said receiving 422nd, 477th and 485th positions respectively.
The United States dominated the list as 218 American companies won top positions, followed by Japan (42 firms), Britain (33), France (27), Finland (22), Germany (19), Switzerland and Italy (12 companies each).
General Electric, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Citigroup, British Petroleum, Wall-Mart, Shell, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Bank of America, HSBC, Vodafone, IBM, Total and Intel were on the top of the prestigious list.
