West Africa

Determining a list of the biggest companies in any part of the world can be a difficult exercise. Are fully or partly state owned companies to be included, and what about the subsidiaries of foreign companies? In an age where a company can be registered in one country, with operations based in another, and a board and shareholders scattered around the world, such a task can seem almost impossible.

In the case of West Africa this task is perhaps even more problematic. For the purposes of this survey, subsidiaries mainly or wholly owned by foreign companies have been included only where that offshoot is registered and based within West Africa.

Wholly state owned companies have been excluded, while partly privatised companies with listings on regional stock exchanges have been included.

The case of AngloGold Ashanti is particularly complicated. Had this survey been written only a very short time ago, Ashanti Goldfields would have justified inclusion despite the fact that it was partly state owned. Yet following the company's merger with AngloGold of South Africa, it now partly lies in the South African camp. Moreover, the fact that AngloGold itself is already listed on six stock exchanges around the world, including Johannesburg and London, further muddies the water.

Nevertheless, West African interests continue to hold shares in AngloGold Ashanti, including the 17% stake held by the Ghanaian government. The chief executive of Ashanti Goldfields, Sam Jonah, is also to become the president of the combined company, which plans to strengthen its commitment to West Africa through a $19001 investment in Ghana's Obuasi deep level mine.

As a result, a firm which has long been a symbol of Ghanaian pride remains, at least in part, a West African company. Whether it remains so will partially depend on whether the newly combined company is listed in Ghana.

Separate tables have been drawn up for Nigeria and the rest of West Africa. Had a combined West African survey been included then Nigerian firms would have taken nine of the top 10 places, with only Sonatel present as a token gesture for the rest of the region. Rather than allowing the Senegalese firm to fly the flag for non-Nigerian West Africa, it was felt that including a separate table would at least provide a flavour of what the region outside of the giant Nigerian market had to offer.

Food and drinks companies filled six of the Nigerian top ten, with two banks and two oil companies making up the rest of the list. This may be somewhat surprising given the importance of the oil and gas sector in the country, but many of the international majors which dominate the sector operate through Nigerian subsidiaries that are not locally listed, while Nigeria possesses few large oil sector ancilliary companies.

The top ten West African companies by market capitalisation outside Nigeria cover a rather more diverse spread of sectors, although again banks are well represented.

Tom Nevin

Company Profiles

SONATEL

Sonatel is the top ranked telecommunications company in our survey and is also the largest listed Senegalese firm. The company was formed in 1985 by the merger of part of the Office of Post and Telecommunications and Telesenegal, which previously controlled domestic and international calls respectively.

It became a limited company in 1997, when France Telecom took a 42.33% stake in the venture. Today, the French firm retains this holding, while the remaining equity in the firm is owned by the Senegalese government (27.67%), current and former staff (10%) and individual and institutional investors (20%).

Apart from its fixed line interests, the company has also become a major supplier of internet services in Senegal through its Sonatel Multimedia offshoot, which was set up in 1992. Its Sonatel Mobiles subsidiary also dominates the mobile market in the country with almost 500,000 subscribers. As a result of its international connections, Sonatel has turned Senegal into a major telecorns hub in West Africa.

ECOBANK

While most large West African corporations have strong bases within a single country, one of the region's best known banks can genuinely claim to be a West African company. Although the company's head office is in the Togo capital Lome, the bank's 57 branches are located in all West African countries from Cameroon to Senegal, including Mali and Niger, with the exception of Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Gambia.

Ecobank was borne out of a Federation of West Africa Chambers of Commerce initiative in the 1980s to set up a regional private sector bank. It was finally established in 1985 with the support of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), to offer an alternative to the state owned and foreign banks that had hitherto dominated the sector in both the francophone and anglophone states in the region. Individual and institutional shareholders helped to get the bank off the ground.

UNILEVER NIGERIA LTD

Since the restructuring of Unilever's interests in Nigeria in 1994, Unilever Nigeria Ltd has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever. The company's interests range from foods to soaps, tea and coffee to fruit drinks. Its best selling products in Nigeria include Lipton tea and Omo washing powder, which arc being marketed in an increasing number of towns across the country.