Boston Consulting Group: six Middle East companies influencing global aviation, chemical, energy and manufacturing industries

Allies and Adversaries is the fifth in a series of BCG annual Global Challenger reports identifying the fastest-growing companies in the emerging markets.

It is also part of BCG's Game-Changing Programme to help leaders and their companies capitalize on the opportunities created by these seismic shifts in the global economy.

In Allies and Adversaries, BCG finds that global challenger companies are outpacing household names in the U.S. and Europe and are having a profound impact on the global economy.

They come from 17 countries—with companies from Colombia and Qatar joining the list for the first time. Also for the first time, the global list includes companies from the financial services, health care equipment, and electronic commerce sectors.

In the past five years, these companies—many of them little known in the West—have added 1.4 million jobs, while employment at the nonfinancial S&P 500 stayed flat. Their average revenue was $26.5bn in 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available, compared with $21bn for the S&P 500's nonfinancial companies and $20bn for the entire S&P 500. In the same year, they purchased more than $1.7 trillion of goods and services and invested more than $330bn in capital expenditures.

"If ever there was a wake-up call for business leaders in the West, this is it," said David C. Michael, coauthor of the report, head of BCG's globalization practice, and coauthor of a new book called The $10 Trillion Prize: Captivating the Newly Affluent in China and India (Harvard Business Review Press). "We have been monitoring the rise of global challenger companies for nearly a decade, and the ambition of these companies—what we call the accelerator mindset—has never been stronger," he added.

Global Spotlight on the Middle East
In 2013, the Middle East is represented by four global challenger companies and maintains its share in the BCG Global Challenger top 100 list over previous years. The region is also home to two 'graduate' companies in the 2013 report.

Maintaining their status as global challengers, Saudi Arabian chemicals giant SABIC and Egypt's Elsewedy, a leading manufacturer of electrical wires and cables, continue to impress with their scale, international market positions and excellence in operations in the latest BCG study.

New to the list are Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, two of the fastest growing airlines in the Middle East. Both companies have been leveraging the region's favorable geostrategic location as a transportation hub at the crossroads of Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Africa.

In addition to these four global challengers, Emirates and Saudi Aramco have joined the BCG challenger 'graduate' list. This list contains companies that have moved from global challenger to global leader status in recognition of their outstanding achievements, rivaling or often exceeding the achievements of long-established incumbent players in their respective industries.

"The Middle East upholds it reputation as a truly dynamic region as we witness global challengers emeriti Emirates and Saudi Aramco establish themselves as true international players. Emirates Airline has reported a remarkable record of 24 consecutive profitable years, and its orders for the Airbus A380 superjumbo airliner exceeded that of any other airliner by three times. Similarly, Saudi Aramco is the largest gas and oil company in the world, and has engaged in ventures all over the globe in its quest to become a global integrated energy business," commented Thomas Bradtke, Partner and Managing Director in BCG's Dubai office and originator of BCG's Global Challenger report series in 2006.

"Our four Middle East challengers for 2013 have equally promising forecasts, and are playing a significant role in the global economy. The number of passengers transported through and within the Middle East has grown 15% per annum over the past years, due in large part to the significant investments that challengers Etihad and Qatar Airways have been making in meeting the needs of the global middle class. These megacarriers, along with emeritus Emirates, are reshaping the international aviation landscape. SABIC and Elsewedy are playing equally influential roles in transforming the chemical and manufacturing industries," Bradtke concludes.

Methodology for Selecting the 2013 BCG Global Challengers
Produced by BCG's Global Advantage practice area, the report is based on a comprehensive screening of thousands of companies from emerging markets conducted by BCG experts in each such market. Companies generally need to have annual revenues totaling at least $1bn and overseas revenues of at least 10% of total revenues, or $500m. The screening measures the size of each company relative to other challengers and to multinational competitors in their industries.

It also analyzes each company's international presence, the number and size of its international investments, its M&A activity over the past five years, and the strength of its business model. The team excludes those companies that pursue only low-end, export-driven businesses.