Lisbon, Portugal, 28 Nov – Spanish oil companies Repsol and Cepsa head the ranking of the largest Iberian companies, by annual turnover, while the best-placed Portuguese company is energy company Galp Energia, in eighth place.

In the list of the 1,500 largest companies in the Iberian peninsula, published Monday by Portuguese consulting company Coface Mope, Repsol and Cepsa top the table with turnover of 12.4 billion euros, and 10.7 billion euros, respectively, in 2004.

Spanish telecom Telefonica follows them in third place, with 9.8 billion euros of turnover, and then by three distribution companies – El Corte Ingles, Carrefour and Mercadona.

Portugal’s Galp Energia is placed in eighth place in Coface Mope’s ranking, after Spanish General Motors, with turnover of 6.3 billion euros.

Just one other Portuguese company is in the top twenty, electricity company EDP, which had turnover of 3.54 billion euros in 2004.

With annual sales of around 2 billion euros Portugal’s electricity grid operator Rede Eléctrica Nacional, supermarket operator Modelo Continente and telephone company Portugal Telecom, also appear close to the top of the ranking.

Amongst the Portuguese companies in the list, the largest profits were posted by EDP-Energias de Portugal, (371.8 million euros), by mobile phone operator TMN, (281.6 million euros) and by Galp Energia and Portugal Telecom, both with profit of around 230 million euros. (macauhub)