Tüpraş tops Turkey’s Fortune 500 list

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s leading petroleum company Tüpraş has topped Fortune magazine’s top 500 Turkish companies list in terms of net sales.

Tüpraş revenues were 88.5 billion Turkish Liras ($18.36 billion) in 2018, up 64.1 percent versus the previous year, the magazine said on its website on July 2.

Energy Exchange Istanbul (EXIST) was the second company in the list with its 63.8 billion liras net sales, which increased by 55 percent year-on-year in 2018.

Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines ranked third by the magazine. Its net sales were 62.8 billion liras, up by 58 percent in 2018 compared to 2017.

Total net sales of 500 companies in the list rose by 31.84 percent to 1.59 trillion liras year-on-year in 2018, while the net profit of these companies decreased 16.63 percent to 54 billion liras, the magazine noted.

“Fortune 500 companies’ financing expenses rose by 125.79 percent to 139.2 billion liras,” it said.

Meanwhile, 500 companies’ exports jumped by 57 percent on a basis of the Turkish lira, while their exports soared by 19 percent on the U.S. dollar basis, 450 billion liras and $93.5 billion, respectively.

Exports’ share in the 500 companies total sales reached 28.33 percent in 2018, up from 23.78 percent in 2017.

The most exporting company was Turkish Airlines, with its 54.8 billion liras of exports in 2018.

Automotive company Ford ($5.66 billion), major appliances producer Arcelik ($3.6 billion), construction company Rönesans İnşaat ($3.3 billion) and another automotive manufacturer Tofaş ($3 billion) followed the carrier.

The first 10 companies’ net sales constituted 30.1 percent of total net sales of 500 firms in 2018, while this figure was 27.2 percent in 2017.

Among 500 companies, 271 firms were active in the manufacturing sector, 118 in commerce, 85 in services and 26 in construction.

Total employment of these companies was 1.24 million, while Turkey’s total employment was 28.7 million, as of the end of the last year.

500 companies’ share in Turkey’s GDP was 38 percent in 2017, it reached 42.9 percent in 2018.