Citi today announced the results of its annual mid-market survey in Central and Eastern Europe & the Middle East. Regionally, approximately 58% of mid-market companies polled plan to expand their businesses internationally within the next year – while over a third of smaller companies surveyed expect to do the same.
“Confidence is increasing for the majority of companies we polled. They will increasingly look beyond their national borders for growth,” said Vlad Ponta, Head of Citi Romania Commercial Bank. “The most popular places for expansion are within the Middle East, Europe and US.”
Expansion in Romania
“We’re pleased to say that 32% of companies we surveyed in Romania have international expansion plans which they see as a means of growing their businesses,” said Vlad Ponta, Head of Citi Romania Commercial Bank. “We feel this reflects well on Romania and the top five industries where we see expansion in Romania which are: Manufacturing, Technology and ICT, Consumer Products and Energy and Chemicals”.
But there are challenges
Four of the most common challenges for mid-market companies around the region are:
1. Achieving sales growth or dealing with a sales decline
2. Expanding internationally
3. The changing economic environment
4. Managing working capital.
While at the country level:
- 23% of clients based in Romania, Turkey and Jordan worry about the changing economic environment
- 22% of both Turkish and UAE companies cite the need to increase sales
- 21% of clients based in Czech, Poland and UAE and 26% of those in Russia cite international expansion as their greatest challenge
- 21% of Russian companies mention managing working capital.
The survey
83% of the 1416 respondents are senior financial executives, while 61% of those are CEOs, CFOs or Managing Partners from companies based in Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, Bahrain, Jordan, and the UAE.
Respondents had average annual overall revenue of USD 44 million. 73% of companies polled have up to USD 35 million in revenue while 27% generated revenue well above that amount.
