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Rabat – American business magazine Forbes Middle East revealed on Wednesday its “Top 100 Arab Family Businesses” list, which featured two Moroccan family companies – O Capital Group in 29th position and Holmarcom Group in 92nd position.
Forbes Middle East creates annual rankings based on the value and size of the company, business activity and performance in the previous year, diversity of the company in terms of sectors and geographies, age and legacy of the firm, as well as the number of employees.
The magazine collected data regarding those indicators from stock exchanges, reports from consulting firms, and other primary sources.
Morocco’s O Capital Group, or the “Benjelloun Group,” is currently headed by Othmane Benjelloun, a billionaire banker and CEO of Moroccan banking group BMCE.
The company “has managed to hold a central position in the national economy and is well known in many parts of Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, notably through our banking group Bank of Africa [BMCE],” according to O Capital Group’s website.
Holmarcom Group was founded by the late Abdelkader Bensalah in the 1960s. Its activities extend across several sectors, including finance, agroindustry, real estate, logistics, distributions, and media.
“The rise of Holmarcom Group is linked to that of a family that brought in its ambitions, values and stability … Its history is that of a succession of achievements led by a visionary family,” according to the company’s website.
The ranking highlighted the “V-shaped recovery” that Arab family businesses in the Middle East have seen this year in a wide range of fields, including retail, real estate, energy, and industrials.
Read also: Three Moroccan Banks Among Forbes Middle East ‘Top 30 Banks 2022’
“While they [Arab family businesses] still invest in their traditional businesses, they are also moving towards new age industries, investing in startups and, in some cases, founding their own new enterprises,” the magazine noted.
Forbes Middle East further highlighted how “the third generation and beyond are joining” the family businesses, which used to be run and controlled in an “extremely concentrated” way. The magazine added, “Many have begun focusing on succession planning and separating ownership and management.”
In addition, several Arab family businesses have listed their flagship company or subsidiaries, a trend that Forbes Middle East expects to “continue to grow in the future.”
Saudi family businesses dominated the ranking, with 37 companies, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 25, and Kuwait with eight.
