Introduction

Nineteen years ago the first TOP101 of Latvia’s most valuable enterprises was created. The project has been created and published by Prudentia and NASDAQ Riga every year ever since. Unfortunately, this year’s TOP101 clearly demonstrates the stagnation trend, which can be observed in Latvian economy – the total value of TOP101 companies has increased by 3.7% or approx. 1 billion EUR, which is the lowest growth rate since 2020. As a reason for this trend, we can mention the slow speed of recovery after the risks posed by Covid-19 and Russo-Ukrainian War. For this reason, neither capital markets, nor Latvian companies were able to return to historical values. It is also important to note that the growth of TOP101 value has been mostly caused by the two most valuable enterprises whose total value has increased by 2.1 billion Euro. The value of the rest of TOP101 companies has decreased on average, while the value has concentrated even more between the biggest companies in the country.

TOP101 Industries

For the first time since 2020 the most represented industry in the TOP101 list is Trade: consumer goods. It has increased by almost 3 percentage points compared to the last year due to such enterprises as Fortis VM, SIA and LPP Latvia LTD, SIA, as well as Kesko Senukai, SIA, which has returned to the list this year. An important reason for the change of the most represented industry has been the exclusion of four companies from the Manufacturing: industrial products industry from TOP101, as a result of which the sector is the second-most represented this year. Changes are observable also in the third-most represented industry – Financial services. The share of the sector has increased by 4 percentage points due to the inclusion of such enterprises as Sun Finance Group, AS, 4 Finance, AS, BluOr Bank, AS, and Indexo, IPAS.

Eleven out of sixteen distinguished industries represented in TOP101 have shown a higher total enterprise value this year compared to the last year. Sectors that have shown the highest growth are Trade: industrial goods and Financial services, whose total values have increased by 60.6% and 35.08% respectively. The former one is relatively small – 0.8% of TOP101 combined value; moreover, the increase is caused solely by the newcomer - Chemispec, SIA. The growth of Financial services sector can be explained by inclusion of the abovementioned newcomers in the list, as well as a significant growth in value of financial sector representatives included in last year’s TOP101 due to an increase in the profits of banks and other financial institutions. The largest decrease in total value can be seen in the Manufacturing: industrial products and Healthcare industries, which have decreased by 30.6% and 29.6% respectively. This fall can mostly be attributed to the strong downwards trend in wood production due to the falling wood prices in the market, as well as the convergence of the healthcare industry to normal circumstances after Covid-19 crisis has finished.

Distribution of TOP101 companies based on capital structure

51.5% of TOP101 companies are controlled by foreign shareholders in 2024, which shows a 5.9 percentage point decrease compared to the previous year. The number of state-owned enterprises has remained stable. The share of companies with local private ownership – 34.7% – is 5.9 percentage points higher that in the previous year, which clearly shows that the enterprises with foreign ownership have been replaced by local private entities.

TOP101 Newcomers and Inclusion threshold

This year, TOP101 project has been slightly changed by dividing the entities that have not been included in the last years’ TOP101 in two categories: “newcomers” and “returnees”, which have returned to the TOP101 list. In total, 20 enterprises have changed in the TOP101 list, from which 11 are newcomers and 9 have returned to the list of most valuable companies. The most valuable enterprises from both categories are Gaso, AS, which has been separated from Latvijas Gāze, AS in 2023, as well as Edge Autonomy Riga, SIA. The companies are taking place 34 And 35 respectively. 

This year’s list has continued the trend for decrease of TOP101 inclusion threshold. This year, to be included in TOP101, the last company’s value could be 1.1 million Euro or 1.8% lower than last year. This fact also showcases the increasing value concentration between the country’s most valuable enterprises. It is important to note that some of the last year’s companies have not been included in this year’s TOP101 since they have not submitted the annual reports for the year 2023.