NEW YORK, Dec 24: Dinar Standard, a business strategy e-magazine, released its 2nd annual ranking of top 100 businesses in the 57 member countries of the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference) on Friday.

The ranking shows a healthy 28.7 per cent in aggregate revenue growth of its listed companies over the previous year - indicating a strengthening of economies in the Muslim world.

Only three Pakistani companies made the DS 100 ranking. Pakistan State Oil Company (PSO), which is ranked 44th and Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL) listed at 96 and Oil and Gas Development Limited (OGDC) at 100.

The purpose of the DS 100™ is to portray as close a picture as possible of the corporate environment in OIC member countries. It continues to include government and private enterprises, for which data was verified through public sources, to reflect their disproportionately significant role in the Muslim world economies. At the same time, more than half of the list is comprised of publicly listed companies (57 of the 100) representing the growing public markets of the Muslim world.

“This year’s ranking continues to recognize the rich diversity of corporate activity in the Muslim world,” states Rafi-uddin Shikoh, Editor of Dinar Standard™. “With the tremendous global media interest in the first DS 100™ ranking, we are confident that the ranking is playing its part in raising the spirit of competitiveness in the region, as well as serving as a means of motivation and pride to the ever-important workforce and corporate leaders alike.”

Saudi Aramco, the world’s top oil producer, continues to lead the DS 100™ as the largest business enterprise of the Muslim world with an estimated 36 per cent rise in its revenues from the previous year. Overall, the energy sector dominates the top of the list with 8 of the top 10 being state-owned Integrated Oil & Gas companies. However, it is the diversified conglomerates that have the highest representation on the list (22 of the 100), with Turkish family owned conglomerates Koc Holding, Sabanci Holding, and Dogus Holding having the highest revenues.

The largest growth companies this year are part of the Orascom Group of Egypt with its publicly listed companies Orascom Telekom recording a 113 per cent growth and Orascom Construction recording 98 per cent revenue growth compared to previous year.

Turkish companies continue to lead the list with 25 represented enterprises, followed by 18 from Malaysia, 15 from Saudi Arabia, and 11 from Indonesia. Other countries represented include the UAE, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Bahrain, and Algeria.

Dinar Standard is an online business strategy publication which provides actionable insights and resources for businesses in the Muslim world; addressing their unique challenges and opportunities.

APP adds: Commenting on appreciable ranking of Pakistani companies in “Top 100 Businesses of the Muslim World in 2005,” Rafi-uddin Shikoh, Editor Dinar Standard, said it points “positively” towards impacting trend of privatization.

In an interview with APP on Saturday, Mr Shikoh said “the exciting story relating to Pakistani companies in the DS100 are the recent listing of OGDC in its public market and the pending sale of management shares in PTCL.”

“Both point to a positive economic trend of privatization,” which, he said was “a cornerstone for driving competition.”

He stated that it would be of particular interest for Pakistan to benchmark against its other industry counterparts on the list (Malaysia Telekom, Turk Telecom, Etisalat and others) and see how PTCL manages to transition itself to a new management and how well it is able to improve on its customer value.

In reference to the general Pakistani corporate sector, he said “the continued strong performance” of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) “shows the strength of its fundamentals.”

“It has specifically been impressive that the market for the most part, did not skip a bit given the unfortunate earthquake calamity.”