The 5 biggest companies in Russia
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13 December 2018
The 5 biggest companies in Russia
When checking the Forbes Global 2000, an annual ranking of worlds’ 2000 biggest companies listed at the stock market, you will find 25 Russian companies, which are mainly focused on raw materials of course. It is estimated that Russia contains over 30 percent of the world’s natural resources. In Forbes 2000, companies are listed and ranked based on a mix of four metrics: sales, profit, assets, and market value.
- Surgutneftegas (Сургутнефтегаз): Turnover-wise this company should, with a turnover of 19,82 Billion US-Dollars, be ranked one spot behind VTB Bank (6.), but 3.3 Billion US-Dollars in profits, and 116.000 employees lead the gas and oil producing company to no. 335 in the Forbes Global 2000, which means no. 5 in the Russia internal race.
Surgutneftegas is mainly settled in Siberia with its headquarters in Surgut, also owning four subsidiaries, settled in the European part of Russia, which are especially responsible for the sales.
- LUKOIL (ЛУКОЙЛ): Lukoil is the 6th greatest stock-listed oil company of the world, its oil equivalent is about 17.6 Billion Barrel, which in this category makes them second behind ExxonMobil but still one spot ahead of BP.
The company has the largest crude oil reserves in the world with 16 Billion Barrel, which equals 0.4 % of world’s oil reserves. Lukoil’s company value at the beginning of 2018 was 60 Billion USD and the turnover in 2017 was 99,9 Billion US-Dollar, with profits amounting 7.2 Billion US-Dollars. Summing these statistics up you will find this company, employing 1.970 people, inside the Top 100 of Forbes Global 2000, ending up as 98th.
The company was originally founded by the state by the end of 1991 and named after the three cities:
Langepas, Urai und Kogalym. Starting in 1993, privatization of this company began. Today the company is mainly owned by its Russian top managers, according to some media CEO Wagit Jussufowitsch Alekperow owns about 13% of the shares. Market capitalization of the company was $60.4 billion as of June 2018.
- Rosneft (Роснефть): Russia’s biggest oil company has its headquarters located in the capital city Moscow and is specializing on exploration, extraction, production, refinement, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, and petroleum products. The name comes from the Russian words Российская нефть which translated means Russian oil. It is Russia’s leading oil company and also internationally one of the largest oil companies, ranking 24th in terms of revenue, which in 2017 was € 55,120,000.-. The second largest state-controlled company in Russia employees about 106.000 people and operates in more than 20 different countries around the world. The Russian state owns 50+ % of the companies’ shares, further large shareholders are BP (19.75%), CEFC China Energy (14%), Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority with shares of about 5%.
Rosneft’s CEO is Igor Sechin, who was appointed in 2012, since then the company has grown significantly and expanded further. The current chairman, who was approved in September 2017, is the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Market capitalization of the company was $69 billion at the beginning of 2018.
- Sberbank (ПАО Сбербанк России): This company is the only one in Russian’s Top 5 coming from a different sector than the energy industry, namely the financial sector. The bank employs 310.277 people and is headquartered in Moscow. Sberbank has operations in several European and post-Soviet countries. It is not only the biggest Russian bank, but also the largest in Eastern Europe and third-largest in Europe.
The majority shareholder of Sberbank is the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, owning 50%+1 voting share of Sberbank’s voting shares. The rest of the shares is dispersed among portfolio, private and other investors with an estimated shareholding of over 43% held by foreigners. The stake held by Russia’s central bank can not be sold without a change of the law. The current CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of the largest Russian bank is Herman Oskarovich Gref. He was the Minister of Economics and Trade of Russia from May 2000 to September 2007.
Sberbank has subsidiaries and projects all over Europe and Asia and sponsors sports and charity events in various regions of Russia, as well as educational projects including projects developing financial literacy. The turnover in 2017 was US$ 46,33 billion, the bank had profits of about US$ 13.4 billion and the value of the total assets are US$ 390.0. billion (2018).
- Gazprom (Газпром): Everyone knows this company and for good reason, Gazprom is not only the biggest natural gas extracting, producing, transporting, and selling company of the world with a turnover of 112.23 Billion US-Dollars and profits of 12.2 Billion US Dollars, but is also very active in and well known for Sports sponsorships, especially in football.
The company supports successful international football-clubs such as Zenit St. Petersburg, FC Schalke 04 and Red Star Belgrade as well as less known Clubs. Moreover, it sponsors the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA, including the World Cup 2018 in Russia.
With about 463.000 employees, by the way second largest employer in Russia following the army, Public Joint Stock Company Gazprom is ranked as 43rd in Forbes Global 2000, leading the Russian delegation.
In total Gazprom has more than 500.000 shareholders, companies as well as private persons. The Russian state controls the management via a majority in the Supervisory Board.
The shares are mainly split into Russian Federation with 50.002 per cent, Bank of New York Mellon: 26.955 per cent and other shareholders with a total of 23.043 per cent.
Alexei Borissowitsch Miller is since 2001 the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chairman of the Management Committee (CEO) of Russia’s largest company and the world’s biggest public energy supplier.
Russia’s nominal gross domestic product was $ 1,527 billion in 2017, putting it in 12th place in the world, the 5 above-mentioned companies, which are unique in their form and outstanding, make a major contribution to this.
