Colombia is mainly located in the northwest of South America with some territories in Central America. Colombia borders Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru, while its maritime border borders Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Colombia is the third largest state in Latin America and almost five times the size of Great Britain.
Colombia has a relatively advanced and diverse economy, as well as economic and political stability. Entrepreneurs have numerous opportunities in a variety of industries, especially niche areas. The main industries are textiles, clothing and shoes, food processing and beverages, petroleum, chemicals, cement and automobiles, coal, gold and emeralds, and consumer goods. Its main exports are coal, crude oil, coffee and non-ferrous metals.
Colombia is home to numerous local and multinational companies. Below is the list of the five largest companies in Colombia.
Ecopetrol Ecopetrol, formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos SA, is the largest company in Colombia and its main activity is oil and gas exploration and other activities. Thanks to efficient processes and continuous growth, the company was able to climb to the top of the Fortune Global 500 as one of the largest companies in the world measured by sales. In 2012, Ecopetrol was the 346th largest company in the world according to the Fortune Global 500 Top. It was also one of the top 25 oil companies in the world and one of the top 4 oil companies in Latin America. Since then, the company has lost some of its revenue year after year and was not included in the Fortune Global 500 top largest companies in the world with sales of nearly $ 16 billion in fiscal 2016, but is currently number 559. Company in Forbes Global 2000 -Top.
The largest company in Colombia was founded in 1921 and is now headquartered in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. Exploration is one of the company's core activities. It has taken numerous significant steps in the exploration segment, particularly in the offshore search for hydrocarbons. Some of them are Rydberg with Shell and Nexen, Lion with Repsol, and part of the team to discover Orca-1, the first such discovery in the deep waters of the Colombian Caribbean. Other business activities include manufacturing, innovation, science and technology, transportation, supply and marketing.
Grupo Aval In recent years, Grupo Aval has managed to grow in sales and surpass Bancolombia to take second place in the top of the largest companies in Colombia. Grupo Aval is a holding company headquartered in Bogota, Colombia, operating primarily in Colombia and Central America. The company is engaged in a wide variety of activities including banking, telecommunications, and real estate. The holding is controlled by Luis Carlos Sarmiento, who directly and indirectly holds over 90% of the company's shares.
Grupo Aval is the owner of BAC-Credomatic, which operates in Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Florida in the USA. In addition, the holding company owns enough shares in other companies to control their operations. Most of them are financial institutions in Colombia: Banco de Bogota SA, Banco de Occidente SA, Banco Popular SA, Banco AV Villas SA, etc.
Grupo Aval ranks 693rd in Forbes Global 2000 Top with $ 8.5 billion in sales and numbers in many other Forbes-based tops: # 88 in Top Regarded Companies, # 377 in Assets, # 899 in Profit and # 1289 in Market value.
Bancolombia Bancolombia is the second largest commercial banking institution in Colombia, with operating income of nearly $ 7 billion in 2016, and one of the largest in Latin America. The bank was founded in 1945 and is now headquartered in Medellin, Colombia. Bancolombia is a full service bank not only in Colombia but also in countries like Panama, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Peru, Brazil, the islands, USA, Australia, Spain, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Bancolombia operates in nine segments: Banking Colombia and Banking El Salvador, Trust, Investment, Leasing, Pension and Insurance, Brokerage, Offshore and All other.
In cooperation with its subsidiaries and partners, Bancolombia offers a wide range of products and services, such as banking, brokerage, asset management and fiduciary services. With a profit of $ 6.7 billion, Bancolombia ranks 724th in the Forbes Global 2000 top.
Banco Davivienda Banco Davivienda is a Colombia-based bank founded in 1972 and headquartered in Bogota, Colombia. It is currently a part of Grupo Bolivar, the third largest financial institution in Colombia by earnings and assets. Banco Davivienda offers financial services to corporate and private clients as well as the rural sector. Banco Davivienda is currently number 1374 on the Forbes Global 2000 top at $ 3.3 billion.
Grupo Bolivar Grupo Bolivar is a holding company with over 70 years of experience and active in various sectors such as finance, insurance and construction. Interestingly, while Grupo Bolivar has a slightly higher turnover than Banco Davivienda, Forbes has placed it below its subsidiary - it ranks 1546th in the Forbes Global 2000 top.
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