UAE ranks second in new Fortune 500 Arabia’s rankings of most profitable companies

The publisher said the companies were ranked by their collective revenues, which hit about $1.6 trillion in 2022, yielding a net profit of $343 billion. Private companies not listed on financial markets made up 9 per cent of the list.

Dubai’s Emirates Group, the owner of flagship airline Emirates, secured the sixth position on the prestigious list, distinguishing itself as the sole UAE Company to rank within the top ten.

The Emirates Group posted an 81 per cent year-on-year jump in its revenue for 2022, on the backdrop of growing travel demand during the year. Qatar’s flag carrier, Qatar Airways, snagged the seventh spot.

Other UAE companies on the list are DP World (ranked 12), e& (ranked 15), Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) and Emirates NBD Bank, ranked 17 and 18, respectively.

Fortune 500 Arabia

The first-of-its-kind list of the largest companies in the Arab region was selected using a methodology based strictly on reported and verified revenues and was unveiled after seven decades after the inception of the globally acclaimed Fortune 500 list, said Fortune Arabia’s Editor-in-Chief, Hamoud Almahmoud.

The data used to compile the list was based on 2022, a year when companies were regaining their footing following the pandemic, only to be plunged directly into the crisis of the Russian-Ukraine war, the global inflation crisis, and the increase in interest rates.

Highest employment rates

UAE companies also topped the list regarding employee numbers, with 681,390 employees across 87 companies, accounting for 17.4 per cent of the companies on the list, surpassing Saudi companies of 548,625 employees.

In general, the number of UAE CEOs in listed companies reached 38 CEOs, placing UAE third, following Egypt, which ranked second with 64 CEOs, and Saudi Arabia, which topped the list with 128 CEOs.

Top 10 companies and revenues