Gazprom tops annual rating of Russia’s top brands

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia’s gas giant Gazprom topped a new annual rating of Russia’s top brands, accounting for almost half of the combined value of 40 brands in the study, RIA Novosti reported.

Gazprom’s brand was valued at 1.2 trillion rubles ($37.4 billion) by New York-based brand consultancy Interbrand, in part due to the company’s assets in industries other than energy resources.

The runners-up in the survey, released Tuesday, Oct 29, were telecom giants MTS and Beeline, priced at 192 billion rubles ($6 billion) and 155 billion rubles ($4.8 billion) respectively.

The top 10 also comprised another telecom operator Megafon; miner Norilsk Nickel; state-owned bank Sberbank; oil companies TNK and LUKoil; Baltika brewery; and Tatneft oil company.

Telecoms accounted for 19 percent of entries on the list, followed by oil companies (11 percent) and metals companies (7 percent).

The New York-based Interbrand is best known for its Best Global Brands annual report, published since 2000 and topped by tech giant Apple this year.

The company ranked Russian brands based on their financial assets; the role of the brand, or its impact on the decision to purchase; and brand strength, or ability to secure future earnings.

The previous Top Russian Brands study came out in 2010 and was topped by MTS, Beeline and Baltika. The study featured a different methodology and did not include Gazprom.