Colombia is located mainly in the northwest of South America with some areas in Central America. Colombia borders with Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru, and the maritime border with Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Colombia is the third most populous state in Latin America and is almost five times the size of the UK.

Colombia has a relatively developed and diverse economy, as well as economic and political stability. Entrepreneurs have many opportunities in various sectors, especially in niche areas. Major industries include textiles, clothing and footwear, food and beverages, petroleum, chemicals, cement and automobiles, coal, gold and emeralds, and home appliances. The main exports are coal, crude oil, coffee and non-ferrous metals.

Colombia is home to numerous local and multinational corporations. Below is a list of the top five companies in Colombia.

Ecopetrol
Ecopetrol, formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos SA, is the largest company in Colombia, whose main activity is oil and gas production and other operations. As a result of efficient work and continuous growth, the company managed to enter the Fortune Global 500 list as among the largest companies in the world in terms of revenue. In 2012, Ecopetrol was the 346th largest company in the world according to the Fortune Global 500. It was also among the 25 largest oil companies in the world and among the 4 major oil corporations in Latin America. Since then, the company has lost some of its revenue year after year, and with its revenue of almost $16 billion in fiscal 2016, it did not make the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies, but is currently ranked 559th in the ranking. Forbes. Top Global 2000.

Colombia's largest company was founded in 1921 and is currently headquartered in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. Geological exploration is one of the main activities of the company. The company has achieved numerous significant successes in the exploration segment, especially in offshore hydrocarbon exploration. Some of them are Rydberg with Shell and Nexen, Lion with Repsol, and part of the team that discovered Orca-1, which is the first such discovery in the deep waters of the Colombian Caribbean. Other activities include manufacturing, innovation, science and technology, transportation, procurement, and marketing.

Aval Group
In recent years, Grupo Aval has managed to grow in revenue and surpass Bancolombia as the second largest company in Colombia. Grupo Aval is a holding company headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia, operating primarily in Colombia and Central America. The company is engaged in a wide variety of activities, such as banking, telecommunications and real estate. The holding is controlled by Luis Carlos Sarmiento, who directly and indirectly owns more than 90% of the company's shares.

Grupo Aval is the owner of BAC-Credomatic operating in Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Florida in the USA. In addition, the holding owns enough shares of other companies to control their activities. Most of them are Colombian financial institutions: Banco de Bogota SA, Banco de Occidente SA, Banco Popular SA, Banco AV Villas SA, etc.

The Aval Group ranks 693rd in the Forbes Global 2000 ranking with an income of 8.5 billion US dollars and figures in many other Forbes rankings: 88th in the ranking of the most respected companies, 377th in assets, 899th by profit and 1289th place by market value.

Bankulombia
With an operating income of almost US$7 billion in 2016, Bancolombia is the second largest commercial banking financial institution in Colombia and one of the largest in Latin America. The bank was founded in 1945 and is currently headquartered in Medellin, Colombia. Bancolombia is a full-service bank that provides a wide range of financial products and services to a diversified corporate and individual client base not only in Colombia, but also in jurisdictions such as Panama, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Peru, Brazil, Cayman Islands. islands, USA, Australia, Spain, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Bancolombia operates in nine segments: Colombian banking and El Salvador banking, trust, investments, leasing, pensions and insurance, brokerage, offshore operations and all others.

In cooperation with its subsidiaries and partners, Bancolombia provides a wide range of products and services such as financing, savings and investment, mortgage banking, financial and operating leases, factoring, treasury, foreign exchange, complex

Banco Davivienda
Banco Davivienda is a Colombia-based bank founded in 1972 and with headquarters in Bogota, Colombia. It is currently a part of Grupo Bolivar, the third biggest financial institution in Colombia by profits and assets. Banco Davivienda offers financial services to corporate and individual customers as well as the rural sector. Banco Davivienda currently is number 1374 in the Forbes Global 2000 top with 3.3 billion USD.

Grupo Bolivar
Grupo Bolivar is a holding company with over 70 years of experience and operating in various sectors, such as financial, insurance and construction. Interestingly, although Grupo Bolivar had a slightly bigger amount of revenues than Banco Davivienda, Forbes has placed it below its daughter company – it takes 1546th place in Forbes Global 2000 top.