Energy companies top Turkey's Fortune 500 list

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Seven energy companies are among the top 10 largest companies in Turkey based on revenue, according to the Fortune 500 list announced on Monday.

Turkey's top oil refinery, TUPRAS, ranked no. 1 on this year's list -- which is annually published by the business magazine Fortune -- with a net sales revenue of 34.85 billion Turkish liras ($9.89 billion) in 2016.

According to the list co-compiled by two international credit information companies, CRIF and Dun and Bradstreet, energy exchange company EPIAS came second with 32.97 billion Turkish liras ($9.36 billion), followed by fuel oil distributor OMV Petrol Ofisi with 30.79 billion Turkish liras ($8.74 billion).

Rounding out the top five are last year's no.1, state-owned pipeline operator BOTAS with 29.68 billion Turkish liras ($9.36 billion), and national flag carrier Turkish Airlines, with 29.46 billion Turkish liras ($8.36 billion).

OPET Petrol ranked no. 6 with 20.53 billion Turkish liras ($5.83 billion), while TETAS came ninth with 16.89 billion Turkish liras ($4.79 billion), and SHELL&TURCAS Petrol ranked tenth with 16.82 billion Turkish liras ($4.44 billion).

Turkey’s top 500 companies increased their net sales by 9.4 percent in 2016 to 930.85 billion Turkish liras ($264.39 billion), while their exports increased by 6.74 percent to reach 220.8 billion Turkish liras ($62.7 billion).

Meanwhile, net profits for Turkey’s leading companies rose 48.5 percent to 42.5 billion Turkish liras ($12.1 billion).

The Fortune 500 list includes publicly and privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available.