Botswana leads but Malawi is new star.

South Africa so completely dominates the rankings of Africa's biggest companies that it is felt useful to consider Southern Africa's largest firms that lie outside the continent's economic superpower separately. There are several areas of notable success, including perennial favourite Botswana and more recently Malawi, where banks appears to be benefiting from the overall improvement in the country's fortunes. However, even here, the past year has not been kind to the value of the region's leading companies. This year's table has a very different flavour to the 2008 survey because the Harare stock exchange has been closed for the first months of this year. It reopened as we went to press with all the shares now priced in US dollars, underlining the financial chaos that has enveloped the country. As a result, there was no trade in Zimbabwean stocks at the end of January, which is the date on which we have drawn our market values. There were 17 Zimbabwean companies listed in our regional survey last year, but their absence means that their counterparts in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Namibia have all been given more opportunity to shine.

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The Batswana economy continues to go from strength to strength (despite the current recession that has seen demand for diamonds drop, forcing Debswana to suspend operations at Orapa for 2009), as decades of prudent financial management and diamond revenues feed through into other sections of the economy. As last year, the top three companies in Southern Africa are First National Bank of Botswana, Standard Chartered Bank Botswana and Barclays Bank of Botswana, although the order has changed a little with Standard Chartered now overtaking Barclays. The share prices of all three have fallen substantially but not as dramatically as in some other parts of the continent, indicating some resilience in both domestic and foreign investor confidence.

Publishing its financial results for the second half of 2008, First National Bank could even announce a 32% increase in pre-tax profits on the back of a 27% rise in lending. In a statement, the bank revealed: "Increased volumes as a result of improved service-delivery channels, technological improvements and business growth from expansion have resulted in non-interest revenue growing by 32%. Although the non-interest revenue was negatively impacted by the reduction in foreign currency availed to the market by Debswana as a result of world economic downturn, the volatility of the rand has resulted in higher foreign exchange trading profits."

Malawi is the new star

Malawi has also had a bigger impact on this year's table. The government's policy of providing subsidies to the agricultural sector initially provoked opposition from Western financial institutions but has now been vindicated by higher yields and the emergence of Malawi as a major regional food exporter. The country's small farmers are now enjoying the fruits of the new policy and, at the opposite end of the scale, Illovo Sugar Malawi is now the biggest company in the country with a market capitalisation of $593m.

Aside from its domestic operations, Illovo is in the process of expanding its Zambian production from 200,000t of sugar to 440,000t. About 2,100 hectares of additional land have already been brought under cultivation, with a further 7,500 hectares to follow.

With 51% of the issued share capital, Associated British Foods is the biggest shareholder in the company, which also has operations in Swaziland, Tanzania and Mozambique. In addition, it is forming a public-private partnership with the government of Mali to develop a sugar mill with production capacity of 200,000t a year, an ethanol plant and an electricity cogeneration facility. For the first time, one of Africa's least heralded economies is gaining a national company with pan-African aspirations.

Despite enjoying one of Africa's biggest and fastest-growing economies, Angola is still absent from our tables. Foreign oil companies continue to dominate the rapidly growing oil and gas sector, while far too much remaining economic activity is controlled by state-owned firms, leaving relatively little for the private sector. The non-oil economy is still struggling to recover from the long decades of civil war and unless the government embarks upon a privatisation programme, the country is likely to be missing from our table for some time to come.

Southern Africa's Top 50 companies excluding South Africa

Regional  Rank  ABRI_Code   Company Name     Country   Industry
  Rank    in
          Top
          200

 1         105  BW-FNATBK   First National   Botswana  Banks and
                            Bank of                    Financial
                            Botswana

 2         120  BW-SCBB     Standard         Botswana  Banks and
                            Chartered Bank             Financial
                            Botswana

 3         123  BW-BCBB     Barclays Bank    Botswana  Banks and
                            of Botswana                Financial

 4         135  MW-SUCOMA   Illovo Sugar     Malawi    Agriculture
                            (Malawi) Ltd

 5         158  ZA-ZCCM     Zambia           Zambia    Mining and
                            Consolidated               Metals
                            Copper

 6           -  MW-TNM      Telekom          Malawi    Telecom
                            Networks Malawi
                            (TNM)

 7           -  ZA-ZMSG     Zambia Sugar     Zambia    Agriculture
                            Plc

 8           -  ZA-CELT     Celtel Zambia    Zambia    Telecom
                            Plc

 9           -  ZA-SCBZ     Standard         Zambia    Banks and
                            Chartered Bank             Financial
                            of Zambia

10           -  BW-BIHL     Botswana         Botswana  Insurance
                            Insurance
                            Holdings Ltd

11           -  BW-SCHB     Sechaba Brewery  Botswana  Consumer
                            Holdings Ltd               Goods

12           -  NM-FNN      FNB Namibia      Namibia   Banks and
                                                       Financial

13           -  ZA-CHCM     Chilanga Cement  Zambia    Construction
                            Ltd                        and Materials

14           -  MW-NBM      National Bank    Malawi    Banks and
                            of Malawi                  Financial

15           -  BW-LEGO     Letshego         Botswana  Banks and
                                                       Financial

16           -  MW-FMBK     First Merchant   Malawi    Banks and
                            Bank (FMB)                 Financial

17           -  MW-PCL      Press            Malawi    Diversified
                            Corporation                Conglomerates
                            Ltd

18           -  ZA-ZMBR     Zambian          Zambia    Consumer
                            Breweries Plc              Goods

19           -  NM-NMB      Namibian         Namibia   Consumer
                            Breweries Ltd              Goods

20           -  MW-CBM      Stanbic Bank     Malawi    Banks and
                            Malawi                     Financial

21           -  ZA-ZBEEF    Zambeef          Zambia    Agriculture
                            Products Plc

22           -  BW-ENGN     Engen Botswana   Botswana  Oil and Gas
                            Ltd

23           -  BW-FURN     Furniture Mart   Botswana  Consumer
                            Ltd                        Goods

24           -  ZA-NABR     National         Zambia    Consumer
                            Breweries Ltd              Goods

25           -  MW-NICO     National         Malawi    Insurance
                            Insurance
                            Company Ltd

26           -  ZA-BATZL    British          Zambia    Consumer
                            American                   Goods
                            Tobacco Zambia

27           -  BW-SFLN     Sefalana         Botswana  Diversified
                            Holding Co Ltd             Conglomerates

28           -  ZA-BPZAM    BP Zambia Plc    Zambia    Oil and Gas

29           -  BW-IMAR     Imara Holdings   Botswana  Financial
                            Ltd                        Services

30           -  BW-ABCH     African Banking  Botswana  Banks and
                            Corp Holdings              Financial

31           -  NM-ORY      Oryx Properties  Namibia   Real Estate
                            Ltd

32           -  MW-NBSB     NBS Bank Ltd     Malawi    Banks and
                                                       Financial

33           -  NM-TSOL     Trustco Group    Namibia   Financial
                            Holdings Ltd               Services

34           -  BW-MTST     Metro Sefalana   Botswana  Retail and
                            Cash and Carry             General
                            Ltd                        Trading

35           -  MW-MPIC     Malawi Property  Malawi    Real Estate
                            Investment
                            Company Ltd

36           -  BW-PRIM     Prime Time       Botswana  Real Estate
                            Property
                            Holdings Ltd

37           -  BW-TUST     Turnstar         Botswana  Real Estate
                            Holdings Ltd

38           -  BW-CHOBE    Chobe Holdings   Botswana  Entertainment
                            Ltd                        and Leisure

39           -  BW-AFDIA    African          Botswana  Mining and
                            Diamonds Plc               Metals

40           -  BW-INCO     Securicor        Botswana  Professional
                            Botswana Ltd               Services

41           -  BW-FSGL     FSG Ltd          Botswana  Consumer
                                                       Goods

42           -  MW-SUNBIRD  Sunbird Tourism  Malawi    Entertainment
                            Ltd                        and Leisure

43           -  ZA-MFOZ     Metal            Zambia    Manufacturing
                            Fabricators of
                            Zambia Plc

44           -  ZA-ITVB     Investrust Bank  Zambia    Banks and
                            Plc                        Financial

45           -  MW-NITL     National         Malawi    Financial
                            Investment                 Services
                            Trust Ltd

46           -  BW-RDCP     RDC Properties   Botswana  Real Estate
                            Ltd

47           -  NM-SMSP     Stimulus         Namibia   Financial
                            Investments                Services
                            Ltd

48           -  ZA-PAMODZI  Pamodzi Hotels   Zambia    Entertainment
                            Plc                        and Leisure

49           -  ZA-FRHS     Farmers House    Zambia    Real Estate
                            Plc

50           -  ZA-ZMBS     Zambia Bata      Zambia    Consumer
                            Shoe Company               Goods
                            Plc

Regional Rank  Value (million $)  Dollar Returns in 2008

 1                    737                -40.03%
 2                    648                -22.29%
 3                    628                -31.91%
 4                    593                 17.29%
 5                    481                385.44%
 6                    299                  0.00%
 7                    292                -50.22%
 8                    280                  0.00%
 9                    276                -32.49%
10                    276                -58.33%
11                    249                -27.86%
12                    233                -10.83%
13                    226                -23.49%
14                    199                  5.10%
15                    196                -28.82%
16                    185                 44.19%
17                    156                 -1.47%
18                    121                -44.41%
19                    118                -10.40%
20                    118                 35.08%
21                     99                -57.33%
22                     86                -26.56%
23                     74                -19.05%
24                     73                -34.54%
25                     69                 17.00%
26                     61                -25.51%
27                     60                -35.24%
28                     55                -50.70%
29                     54                 -0.70%
30                     54                -19.05%
31                     51                -26.30%
32                     50                217.48%
33                     48                -26.79%
34                     38                -14.71%
35                     34                -29.39%
36                     27                -35.24%
37                     23                -27.93%
38                     22                -41.64%
39                     22                -72.79%
40                     22                -35.97%
41                     18                  0.00%
42                     16                 16.92%
43                     16                -54.41%
44                     14                -55.77%
45                     14                -13.79%
46                     14                -23.42%
47                     13                -28.81%
48                      8                128.12%
49                      8                -54.11%
50                      7                  5.43%