Telecoms company, Econet Wireless and beverage maker, Delta Corporation are the only two Zimbabwean companies to make it into Africa’s top 250 companies in 2020 , a pan-African publication, Business Africa Magazine has published.
The survey ranks African or Africa-focused companies listed on public securities exchanges according to their market valuation as gathered by Tom Minney of African Securities Exchanges Association.
Econet Wireless ranked 159 out of 250 top companies, a decline from number 37 last year.
The telecoms company’s market capitalization stood at US$ 409 million with net income of US$ 4 million the survey shows.
Delta Corporation ranked 187 down from 55 last year.
The beverage maker’s market valuation stood at US$ 313 million with net income of US$ 2 million.
The steep decline in value for the two companies has largely been attributed to the currency changes in Zimbabwe put in place last year following the transition from a USD-denominated system to the Zim-dollar regime.
The Zimbabwe dollar has been in free-fall since its re-introduction last year from parity position with the USD to trade at ZWL$ 60 against the greenback currently.
But Zimbabwean companies were not the only losers in this year’s list with most companies having lost their valuation due to a host of challenges including a tough operating global economy and the scourge of the coronavirus.
Total value for all 250 firms stood at US$597.7 billion, down 20% from last year’s total of US$748.2 billion.
The list was mainly dominated by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed firms with North African companies from Egypt and Morocco also constituting the majority of companies.
South African firms, NEW Prosus, Naspers, Financiere Richiemont, Anglo American and Anglo American Platinum made the 2020 top 5 African companies in that order.
Firstrand (S.A), Vodacom Group (S.A), Maroc Telecom (Morocco), Standard Bank Group (S.A) and Safaricom (Kenya) completed the top 10 list in that order.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote’s Dangote Cement was ranked 21 down from 19 last year..
