Intercontinental Bank, UBA, First Bank make Forbes top 2000 World's Biggest Companies

At the backdrop of global economic meltdown three Nigerian banks, Intercontinental Bank Plc, First Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc made the Forbes list of top 2000 world biggest companies.

They joined 248 other companies around the world to displace same number of companies that featured on the list in the 2008 ranking. This appears to be a confirmation of the 2009 global banking industry. which listed the three banks among top 500 banks in the world.

The global banking industry research and ratings for 2009 has listed First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa on the World’s top 500 banking brands by the Banker magazine, a publication of the Financial Times of London.

Nigerian banks made their first showing on the world’s top 500 banks in 2007 when Intercontinental Bank came number 355 on the list while also emerging the fastest growing bank in the world. The bank has since then made the list moving up in 2008 to 334.

The banks that made this year’s list had emerged as industry leaders consistently since after the banking industry reforms introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2004 and industry watchers believe they are going to sustain this position for a long time as their market share keep growing by the year.

Factors accounting for the drop off of the companies that were on the 2008 list but could not make the list in the 2009 ranking, according to Forbes, include mergers, weak financial performance and outright failure.

For instance, Forbes noted that the former 97 th -largest company in the world, Lehman Brothers, fell into bankruptcy, while the weakness in the financial markets led to governments nationalizing some big banks, such as Ireland’s Anglo Irish banks and Iceland’s kaupthing Bank.

For Nigeria, the listing of three of the country’s banks on the Global 200 current listing is a cause for cheers. First Bank Plc is ranked at 1,375 while the United Bank for Africa comes on the list at number 1,560, Intercontinental Bank Plc completes Nigeria’s showing on the list at 1,798.

Explaining the methodology adopted in arriving at the final compilation of the 2000 biggest companies, Forbes says that companies must have a publicity traded stock in order to qualify for the Global 2000. The Global 2000 companies have the top composite scores based on sales, profit, assets and market value.

First Bank Plc’s composite score on the four metric measures shows a sales figure of $1.29billion, a profit stated at $0.31billion, assets metric calculated at 413.05billion and market value stated at $2.89billion.

The United Bank of Africa’s sales figure is stated at $1.44billion with profit at $0.35 while its assets stand at $14.22billion and its market value calculated at 41.43billion.

Intercontinental Bank Plc incredibly returned a higher sales figure that the other two Nigerian banks on the list with its $1.48billion position and a profit position of $0.29billion with assets calculated at $11.90billion and market value adding up to $0.88billion.

Speaking on the report, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said, “ Even a depression is a place for opportunity if you have cash, scale and ambition. Many of the names on this year's Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's biggest companies will emerge on the other side of the trough far stronger when world economies snap back next year. For the strong corporations, there are rivals to buy, technologies to fund and new markets to enter--all at lower prices than we've seen in years. ''Despite the economy, it's important to think about what is possible.''

Forbes' ranking of the world's biggest companies departs from lopsided lists based on a single metric, like sales. Instead, it uses an equal weighting of sales, profits, assets and market value to rank companies according to size. This year's list reveals the dynamism of global business. The rankings span 62 countries, with the U.S. still dominant at 551 members, but that is 200 fewer than in 2004, when we first published this global list.

For the past few years, we have also identified an important subset of the Global 2000: big companies that also have exceptional growth rates. To qualify as a Global High Performer, a company must stand out from its industry peers in growth, return to investors and future prospects. Most of the 130 Global High Performers have been expanding their earnings at 28% a year or better--easy for a start-up, hard for a blue-chip.

The brains behind the Rumors and De-Marketing in the Banking Industry

I refer you to Vanguard Newspaper lead story of 31 March 2009 and a similar story in the Punch Newspaper of 31 March 2009. It appears that the brains behind the rumors and De-Marketing in the banking industry are gradually being unveiled. Information flowing out is indicating that a particular old generation bank is actually spreading rumors targeting customers of Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental Bank and Zenith Bank. It is also becoming clearer that the purpose is to scare off the depositors of the banks and move their deposits to the old generation bank.

There is also clearer evidence in the Money Market that staff of this particular old generation bank are actually spreading rumors about the targeted banks. The CBN should not shy away from bringing the offenders to book, even publicly since it had stipulated punishment for De-Marketing.