The TOP101 Latvia's Most Valuable Companies project, created annually by Prudentia and Nasdaq Riga, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Since the first ranking in 2006, the combined value of Latvia's 101 largest companies has grown more than fourfold - by 337%. It is important to note that this figure does not account for the effect of inflation. Looking back over the past two decades, Prudentia team has calculated the so-called real TOP101 value growth, which, as expected, is significantly lower. When adjusted for inflation, the TOP101's real value has doubled compared to 2006.

Regardless of the calculation method, this substantial growth highlights the remarkable development and profound transformation of Latvia's business environment, which the TOP101 ranking has been reflecting for the past 20 years.

When analysing the TOP101's most valuable industries over the past 20 years, we can observe significant structural changes. For example, the financial services sector has been particularly volatile - its sharpest decline occurred due to the consequences of 2008-2009 Global Financial Crisis, while its strongest growth has been seen in recent years. This rise is largely driven by the rapid development of fintech platforms, Swedbank AB decision to consolidate all Baltic operations under SWEDBANK BALTIC AS registered in Latvia, and several other contributing factors.

At the same time, the share of the transport and logistics sector within the TOP101 has declined considerably, reflecting a shift away from leveraging Latvia's geographic position for transit trade in goods and raw materials toward higher value-added industries.

Among other key sectors, the utilities industry - led by LATVENERGO, AS - remains prominent. Retail of consumer goods, headed by RIMI LATVIA, SIA and MAXIMA LATVIJA, SIA, continues to play a major role. The industrial manufacturing sector, represented by companies such as MIKROTĪKLS, SIA and LATVIJAS FINIERIS, AS, as well as the IT and telecommunications sector, with LATVIJAS MOBILAIS TELEFONS, SIA; TELE2, SIA; TET SIA, and others, have also been among the most significant contributors to the TOP101's overall value throughout the past two decades.

This chart illustrates that in 2025, the share of the TOP 10 most valuable companies within the TOP101 ranking reached an all-time high of 57% of the total value. The lowest share was recorded in 2018, when it stood at 36%. Since then, the 10 most valuable Latvian companies have been increasing and concentrating their value at a much faster rate than the remaining 91. This can be explained by the fact that these companies have truly managed to demonstrate stronger profitability and business growth indicators. Additionally, the decision by Swedbank AB in 2021 to register its Baltic business holding company in Latvia contributed significantly to this shift. As a result, in the 2022 TOP101, SWEDBANK BALTICS, AS entered the ranking with a value of EUR 3.17 billion, while the Latvian business unit SWEDBANK, AS in the 2021 TOP101 had a value of "only" EUR 964 million.

From the very first TOP, we can observe that companies owned by foreign capital have consistently dominated in terms of total value. Their share has remained relatively stable at around half of the total TOP101 value. There is no right or wrong answer here - the proportion has simply remained steady over time: roughly half of the total value belongs to foreign capital and half to local capital.

More interesting, however, is the ongoing "competition" between state-owned and privately owned Latvian companies. The data show that only in 2007 and 2022 did the combined value of private companies exceed that of state-owned enterprises. The situation in 2022 can be explained by an exceptionally strong year for the manufacturing sector, particularly for wood processing companies, which are predominantly locally owned. Many of these firms experienced remarkable value growth (between 50% and 150%).

Interestingly, the highest value growth has been demonstrated by MAXIMA LATVIJA, SIA, with an impressive increase of 695%. In the second place is LATVENERGO, AS with 603%, followed by RĪGAS SILTUMS, AS in the third place with 518%. Other companies have shown more moderate growth, which is somewhat surprising. The bottom three positions are occupied by telecommunications companies, which is likely caused by intense competition, rapid technological changes, and other industry challenges. It is also insightful to examine the average annual value growth of these companies and the volatility of that growth, expressed as the standard deviation. In essence, the lower the average volatility over 20 years, the lower the risk.

Based on this indicator, which can be viewed as a modified Sharpe ratio, LATVENERGO, AS has achieved the strongest performance, with the highest coefficient of 0.73. This serves as a compelling argument in favor of listing the company on the stock exchange.

Consumer price inflation is considered one of the factors influencing enterprise valuations. When combining TOP101 data on the value growth of Latvia's largest companies with the inflation rate from the previous year, a clear pattern emerges: the sharpest declines in company values have been associated with periods of high inflation, while the strongest increases in value have occurred during times of low inflation.

One of the ways in which inflation reduces company value is through rising interest rates, which increase the cost of borrowing and make capital raising more difficult. When combining TOP101 company value change data with EURIBOR interest rates for the corresponding years, we can see that the increase in cost of debt over the period has significantly hindered the value growth of Latvian companies. In contrast, the impact of low or even negative interest rates has been much less pronounced.