Largest Retail Chains in Africa [Annual Sales of US$200M or More]

When it comes to formal retail, the top ten rankings for the continent are not too different from the rankings for Sub Saharan Africa (For Sub Saharan list, click here)

South African companies occupy 9 of the top 10 positions with Morocco's Marjane Holdings being the only business from a different country in the top 10.

There are more than 1500 independent formal retail companies across Africa. Of these, less than 35 had annual sales of $200M or more. 

The following two retailers from Nigeria should probably be on this list (revenues are likely somewhere within the $100M to $250M range). However, no information on their sales is currently available.

• Park n Shop (part of Artee Group which also owns the local franchise of Spar)
• Addide

US$ exchange rates as at April 2014.

Largest Retail Chains in Sub Saharan Africa

Perhaps nowhere else has South Africa demonstrated its capacity as the continent's private sector leader than in its dominance of Sub Saharan Africa's (SSA) retail industry. The 11 largest retailers in SSA are all from the continent's southern most country.

While the largest retailers in other SSA countries contemplate opening a couple of new stores, the continent's largest retailer Shoprite is mulling hundreds of new stores in the coming 5 years. 

As South Africa's retailers flex muscle and rise above the local competition in Africa's most populous country and now largest economy Nigeria, that already huge gulf with non-South African players on the continent can only grow wider. Of the 10 largest South African retail chains, 6 are already in Nigeria.

Size perhaps precipitates another key distinction between South Africa's retailers and those of the rest of the region - the availability of information. All major retailers in South Africa are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and therefore required to make their financial results public. 

In contrast, virtually all significant players in the rest of the continent are privately owned. Fortunately, a good number do make their annual turnover available even though they may not provide access to their actual financials. One can also perform a 'smell test' on their numbers by bench-marking their results against similar sized businesses in similar markets.

In the course of this research, there were some pleasant surprises. For instance, Zimbabwe's economy is often assumed to be a complete basket case in every respect. Yet its local retailers are some of the largest in SSA outside South Africa. 

Outside South Africa, the only SSA countries that already have a relatively vibrant home grown formal retail sector are Kenya, Zimbabwe, Gabon, Angola and Cote d'Ivoire. Other countries are either still fairly virgin markets or are served by foreign retailers. Majority of homegrown retailers across the region operate solely within their home markets. The exception are companies from South Africa and Kenya.

There are hundreds perhaps thousands of distinct formal retail businesses across Africa (Kenya alone has more than 250 separate supermarket businesses) but very few have an annual turnover of more than US$200M a year.

The following two retailers from Nigeria should probably be on this list (revenues are likely somewhere within the $100M to $250M range). However, no information on their sales is currently available.

• Park n Shop (part of Artee Group which also owns the local franchise of Spar)
• Addide

French retailer Casino has a significant presence in several countries across Francophone SSA.

US$ exchange rates are as at April 2014.

For the Africa-wide list, click here

Africa's Busiest Container Ports in 2012 and 2013

The following is an exclusive listing of Africa's busiest container ports. Global rankings (e.g. from Containerisation International Magazine) usually focus on the world's top 100 container ports and thus include less than 5 ports from Africa. As such, there currently does not exist a comprehensive listing of Africa's largest container ports.

Submit any request for clarification in the comment section below or get in touch via Twitter on @afrocompanies

Observations 

• The total number of TEUs managed by Africa's top 36 container ports in 2012 was 25 million. While that number is no doubt huge, it is substantially lower than container traffic at the world's two busiest container ports (Shanghai's 32.53 million TEUs and Singapore's 31.65 million TEUs) and not much more than the next two busiest ports (Hong Kong's 23.12 million TEUs and Shenzen's 22.94 million TEUs).

• The '2012' statistics for Egypt's Sokhna port are from 2008. However, 2012 data is unlikely to be too far from that figure given the sociopolitical unrest that has plagued Egypt since January 2011.

Definition of TEUs 
TEU stands for Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit. It is a standard unit for counting containers of various capacities and for describing the capacities of container ships or container terminals. One 20 Foot ISO container equals 1 TEU. One 40 Foot ISO container equals two TEU.



2012




2013

2013 Profit Ranking for the 62 Largest Indigenous Banks in the 48 countries of Sub Saharan Africa

The following is a listing of the 62 largest indigenous banks in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) in order of profit before tax. It is the most comprehensive such list of large banks (over US$1B assets) in the 48 countries that form SSA and includes institutions not captured by The Banker or The African Report lists. There are about 400 indigenous banks in SSA.

US$ exchange rates as at April 2014.

See notes below on the data.

Notes

Data can be verified from the bank's financials (most are available on the bank's website) unless otherwise indicated. Source links are available upon request. Get in touch via the message box below or on Twitter @afrocompanies

The word 'indigenous' means banks whose head office is in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). For this reason, the following large banks that would otherwise be on this list (their assets in SSA exceed US$ 1B as at December 2013) have been excluded:

• Barclays Bank including Absa (Head Office - UK) - 2013 SSA Profit of $1703.79 million
• Standard Chartered Bank (Head Office - UK) - 2013 SSA Profit of $619 million
• Citibank (Head Office - US) - 2013 SSA Profit Estimated at $350-450 million
• Attijariwafa Bank (Head Office - Morocco)
• Societe Generale (Head Office - France)
• BNP Paribas (Head Office - France)
• Credit Agricole (Head Office - France)
• Banco Comercial Portugues (Head Office - Portugal)
• Formento (Head Office - Portugal)
• Millenium BIM (Head Office - Portugal)
• Bank of Baroda (Head Office - India)
• State Bank of India (Head Office - India)

Comments or questions are welcome.

The 62 Largest Indigenous Banks in Sub Saharan Africa by Assets (US$1B or more)

The following is a listing of the 62 largest indigenous banks in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) with assets above US$ 1B. It is the most comprehensive listing of large banks in the 48 countries that form SSA and includes institutions not captured by The Banker or The African Report lists. There are about 400 indigenous banks in SSA.

US$ exchange rates as at April 2014.

See notes below on the data.



Notes

Data can be verified from the bank's financials (most are available on the bank's website) unless otherwise indicated. Source links are available upon request. Get in touch via the message box below or on Twitter @afrocompanies

The word 'indigenous' means banks whose head office is in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). For this reason, the following large banks that would otherwise be on this list (their assets in SSA exceed US$ 1B as at December 2013) have been excluded:

• Barclays Bank including Absa (Head Office - UK) - Subsaharan Africa Assets of US$90B in 2013
• Standard Chartered Bank (Head Office - UK) - Subsaharan Africa Assets of US$20B in 2013 
• Citibank (Head Office - US) - Subsaharan Africa Assets estimated at $10B in 2013 
• Attijariwafa Bank (Head Office - Morocco)
• Societe Generale (Head Office - France)
• BNP Paribas (Head Office - France)
• Credit Agricole (Head Office - France)
• Banco Comercial Portugues (Head Office - Portugal)
• Formento (Head Office - Portugal)
• Millenium BIM (Head Office - Portugal)
• Bank of Baroda (Head Office - India)
• State Bank of India (Head Office - India)