The success of the modern Belgian economy, based on private ownership, can not only be explained by the country's central geographical location. The latter led to the development of excellent transportation infrastructure, as well as trade and manufacturing diversity of the country, even though fossil fuels are 100% foreign. Furthermore, with its plans to close all nuclear plants by 2025, Belgium will become even more dependent on foreign energy. With all that in mind, Belgium’s position as a significant European transport nod is a massive advantage for the country.
Along with the transport and logistics industry, the other sectors of the local economy, such as banking and insurance, as well as chemical and pharmaceutical industry, have marked a successful year in 2018. The most prominent Belgian companies representing these and other industries showed decent profits in 2018, as Global Database’s research demonstrates. We've selected the largest public companies in Belgium by profit to show their real financial situation and outline some of the investment opportunities for both local and foreign companies.
1. Anheuser-Busch InBev ($4.3B)
3. Sofina ($1B)
6. UCB ($933M)
10. Umicore ($374M)
*All figures are in USD. M: Millions of USD, B: Billions of USD
*EUR was converted to USD using an average exchange rate of 0.91 EUR to 1 USD
1. Anheuser-Busch InBev ($4.3B)
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (further AB InBev) is the biggest Belgian company by profits in 2018. This international drink and brewing giant manages around 500 beer brands in more than 100 countries. AB InBev closed 2018 with $54.6B in sales and a profit of $4.3B.
2. KBC Group ($2.9B)
KBC Group N.V. (further KBC) is the largest banking and insurance company in Belgium by profit ($2.9B) and 18th biggest bank in Europe by market cap ($175.7B) in 2018. The company’s worldwide operations held by over 42,000 professionals during the last year resulted in $15B in annual sales of.
3. Sofina ($1B)
Société Financière de Transports et d'Entreprises Industrielles (further Sofina) is an investment holding from Belgium, operating in the UK, Benelux and North America. Sofina is mostly focused on such industries as consumer goods and distribution. Its profit for 2018 was $1B.
4. Solvay Group ($1B)
Solvay S.A. (further Solvay) is a large chemical company, headquartered in Belgium and operating 145 sites in around 53 countries. The company reached $1B in profit and $13.3B in sales in 2018. Solvay is one of the biggest chemicals and plastic manufacturers in the world.
5. Ageas ($955M)
Ageas is a multinational insurance enterprise from the capital of Belgium, operating in the UK, France, Hong-Kong and 8 more countries besides the home country. The company is focused on general, vehicle and travel insurance. It managed to get $12.3B in sales and $955M in profit during 2018.
6. UCB ($933M)
UCB S.A. (further UCB) is a Belgian company, working within pharmaceutical and biotechnology products research, creation and marketing. It employs nearly 7,500 people around the world, whose common effort resulted in $5.5B in sales and $933M in profit in 2018.
7. Proximus ($605M)
Proximus Group (further Proximus) is the biggest telecommunications company in Belgium. Proximus operates 6 main brands providing a wide range of services like landline, mobile, internet and ICT services across the country. These activities brought $6.8B in sales and $605M in profit to the company as of 2018.
8. Colruyt ($476M)
Colruyt Group (further Colruyt) is a prominent retail corporation, which operates in more than 220 locations in Belgium only, and has multiple branches in Luxembourg and France. The 16 subsidiaries of Colruyt earned $10.9B in sales and $476M in profits for the company in 2018.
9. Telenet ($408M)
Telenet Group (further Telenet) is Belgium's biggest cable broadband services company, providing cable TV, as well as landline and mobile telephone services across the country. Telenet employs over 4,000 professionals, whose common effort led to an impressive profit of $408M in 2018.
10. Umicore ($374M)
Umicore N.V. (further Umicore) is a Belgian company operating in the metals and mining industry. The 4 business divisions of the company made it up to $16.2B in sales in 2018. The profit for the same year was $374M. Umicore has one of the biggest market values in the country - $11.8B.
