House of Alireza
Saudi Arabia's oldest family-owned business, the House of Alireza, traces its modest beginnings to the import trade in Jeddah, back in 1845. Moving on to purchase the shipping lines it used to import goods from India, it set the stage for future success on a global scale. Today the company – which is also known locally as Beit Zainal, after its founder Zainal Alireza – is a powerhouse in shipping, real estate, energy, construction, automobile trade, infrastructure development, healthcare, industrial services, information technologies, logistics, real estate and global investing, earning the Alireza family the moniker of Saudi Arabia's answer to the Rockefellers.
Banque Pharaon & Chiha
Lebanon is renowned for its robust banking sector and the sheer longevity of its oldest financial institution, Banque Pharaon & Chiha S.A.L. is a testament to the resilience of the country's banking industry as a whole. Founded in 1876, Banque Pharaon & Chiha is not only Lebanon's oldest bank, it’s the oldest in the entire region, quite a feat in today's era of collapsing global banking institutions. Though relatively small when compared to some of the bigger names in Lebanon, what Pharaon & Chiha lacks in deposits, it more than makes up for in pedigree.
C.A.T. Group
Much of the Middle East's most essential and recognisable infrastructure can be traced to the Lebanese-owned C.A.T. Group. Founded in 1937, it is the Middle East’s oldest surviving contracting firm. Through a massive number of projects that include power stations, airports, pipelines, dams and motorways, C.A.T. has left its mark across a wide geographic footprint. Also significant is the number of engineers and entrepreneurs who graduated through C.A.T.’s ranks and went on to establish their own companies such as the CCC, Zakhem and Setraco Nigeria among others.
Egypt Air
Founded in 1932 as Misr Airwork, Egypt’s national carrier is now one of the region's most widely recognised. Just two years after its first domestic flight, it began serving international destinations with its modest fleet of biplanes. Though Egypt Air is officially state-owned, the company currently operates as a private entity with its daily operations handled by an independent management team. In 2008, Egypt Air joined the Star Alliance, effectively partnering with dozens of the world's top airlines.
Crescent Petroleum
In some ways, Crescent Petroleum represents economic self-sufficiency for the broader Middle East. This might sound strange when referring to a massive oil company but with its founding in 1971, the UAE-based company became the region's first independent, locally-owned petroleum company in a sector dominated by multinationals. Today, CP is a global leader in exploration, extraction and production of oil and natural gas. Its pipelines serve Europe and it has subsidiaries in dozens of countries across the world, including distant locales like Argentina and Canada. The company is currently eyeing Libya and other post-revolution countries for new contracts.
Egypt Post
These electronic days, the mail carrier business is no longer a glamorous one. In the mid-1840s however, when an Italian expatriate opened a small post office on the Mediterranean coast so he could send packages home and starting, in the process, the region’s oldest mail service, mail was the technology of the time. In 1865, the rapidly expanding service in Alexandria was acquired by the Egyptian government and Europea Posta, as it was known, was renamed Egypt Post. Today, that transfer is celebrated as a national holiday called Post Day. While the use of ‘snail mail’ is declining in many countries, Egypt Post remains a critical part of the country's infrastructure.
Dar Al Dawa Development and Investment Company (DADI)
As Jordan's top pharmaceutical company, Dar Al Dawa Development and Investment Company (DADI) is one of the kingdom's crown jewels. Founded in 1975, DADI isn’t old by any measure but it has licensing deals with the biggest names in the drug industry, amongst them Novartis and Pfizer. Since 2006, at least 76 per cent of DADI's sales have been to countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. With the worldwide pharmaceuticals industry worth tens of billions of dollars annually (and growing), it’s a safe bet that DADI will survive for many years to come.
Halwani Bros Co.
Established in 1952, Halwani Bros was the Gulf's first local food production company, making everything from tahina to juices at its Saudi headquarters. Just over 60 years later, the company currently has production facilities in Egypt as well, from which Halwani Bros distributes foodstuffs all over the MENA region. Just how resilient has Halwani been? Year-on-year growth from 2011 to 2012 was nearly 60 per cent, making it a true market force for the sector.
Ford
We're all familiar with American industrialist Henry Ford and his Model T – the world's first affordable car that hit the road in 1908. But did you also know that Ford was churning out his equally famous Model A from an assembly line housed in the Middle East’s only Art Deco tower, right in the heart of Beirut's Ashrafieh district back in 1928? Another connection between the company and the region was the promise of well-paying jobs in the early 1900s, which attracted tens of thousands of Syrians and Lebanese to emigrate to Detroit – a migration that continues to this day.
Kuwait Investment Authority
Shortly after oil was first discovered in Kuwait, the tiny Gulf nation decided that it wanted to prepare for the day its hydrocarbons ran out. So in 1953, the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) was established, becoming the world's first sovereign wealth fund and inspiring dozens of countries to follow suit. These days, despite the fact the fund was drained heavily when it had to pay the allied forces for their efforts in the Gulf War, KIA is still ahead of the pack and is busy exploring alternatives to the oil industry. The latest estimates suggest it is worth some USD 300 billion.
Petromin Corporation
When we think of petroleum, we tend think of it as fuel for our cars. But the lubricant industry – engine and transmission grease, industrial lubricants, refrigeration oil and so on – is just as much a part of the petroleum industry and is just as important to keeping the world up and running. Enter Saudi Arabia's Petromin, the oldest such company in Middle East, which was founded in 1968. Serving some of the world's top names in oil at its state-of-the-art blending facilities, Petromin takes its place on this list as an under-the-radar economic force.
