MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean mining companies, Latam's most profitable

Chilean mining companies top the list of Latin America's 500 most profitable companies, according to the magazine América Economía.

Although ranked just 33rd in terms of size, Chile's Escondida is Latin America's number one company in terms of profit margin (105.1%). Following Escondida on the list were five more Chilean mining companies: Candelaria (73.3%), Pelambres (67.9%), Minera El Abra (63.9%), Collahuasi (63.4%) and Minera Sur Andes (61.6%). Occupying seventh place on the list is Colombia's Grupo BP Exploration, which is followed by yet another Chilean company, Minera Zaldívar. América Economía also listed two Chilean companies among the region's top 10 in terms of actual profit. Escondida ranked third on the list (after Brazil's Petrobras and Vale) with net profits of 6.4 billion US dollars in 2007. Chile's CODELCO ranked seventh with net profits of 2.9 billion US dollars. The state-owned CODELCO, however, led all Chilean companies last year in overall sales: nearly 17 billion. Behind CODELCO were Copec, Escondida and the energy company Enersis, which registered sales of 12.2 billion, 10.1 billion and 9.4 billion US dollars, respectively. Chile's other top companies in 2007 were state-owned oil and gas company ENAP and retail companies Cencosud and Falabella. Chile boasts the sixth-largest economy in the region, which is led by Brazil and Mexico. Together, the region's top 500 companies earned a whopping 195 billion in 2007, twice as much as in 2003, América Economía reported. Brazilian firms represented 42.2%, followed by companies from Mexico (33%), Chile (8.1%), Argentina (5.5%), Colombia (3%) and Peru (1.5%). The Santiago Times