ISTANBUL

Turkish energy firm Energy Exchange Istanbul (EXIST) has captured the top spot in Fortune magazine’s top 500 Turkish companies list in terms of net sales, displacing fellow energy giant TUPRAS, which fell to second place.

EXIST's sales totaled 105.8 billion Turkish liras ($15.07 billion) in 2020, up 20.3% on a yearly basis, according to a statement issued by the magazine on Friday.

TUPRAS, number two on the list, posted sales of 63.24 billion Turkish liras ($9 billion) in 2020, down 29.4% year-on-year.

Amid the pandemic – which led to lockdowns of most stores except for supermarkets – discount grocery store chain BIM was third, up from sixth place in 2019, with its net sales of 55.49 billion Turkish liras ($7.9 billion), rising 38% year-on-year in 2020.

The average US dollar / Turkish lira exchange rate in 2020 was 7.02.

Total sales

Rounding out the top 10 on the list were auto firm Ford ($7 billion), flag carrier Turkish Airlines ($6.6 billion), oil provider Petrol Ofisi ($6.22 billion), jewelry firm Ahlatci ($5.9 billion), major appliances producer Arcelik ($5.8 billion), and oil provider Opet ($5.21 billion).

Total net sales of the top 500 companies in 2020 reached 1.94 trillion Turkish liras ($276 billion), up 6.3% year-on-year, according to the statement.

EXIST's share in the total net sales of the 500 companies was 5.5%, the magazine noted.

It said: "The number of companies with a net sales income of over a billion Turkish liras (around $142 million), which was 323 in 2019 list, increased to 353 in 2020 list.

"The number of companies with net sales revenues of more than 10 billion Turkish liras ($1.42 billion) increased from 33 to 37."

- Exports

Amid the conditions of the pandemic, the 500 firms' total exports – 471 billion Turkish liras ($67 billion) – dropped 26.1% on a US dollar basis and 8.7% on a Turkish lira basis.

"While 75.7% of the net sales of Fortune 500 companies in Turkey consisted of domestic sales, the share of exports decreased to 24.3%," it stressed.

The 500 firms made up 32.9% of the country's overall exports of $204.1 billion in 2020.

Flag carrier Turkish Airlines was the largest company on the list in terms of exports, followed by Ford and Arcelik.