With 35 companies in this year’s Deloitte Central Europe Top 500, Romania ranks 5th within the region. Combined revenues of local largest companies amounted to almost 39 billion Euro, at the end of last year, compared to 39.6 billion Euro in 2011.
Deloitte Central Europe Top 500, now in its seventh edition, is carried out in 18 countries every year and ranks companies by revenues from sales reported for the previous year.
?2012 has been a difficult year both for Romania and for the Central European region. However, Romania maintained its position in the ranking, despite its lower number of companies,” Ahmed Hassan, Deloitte Romania Managing Partner, said. ?We have 14 companies which advanced in this year’s edition of the top, including two of them that jumped 74 and 70 places, respectively. There are also 5 new entries, compared to 4 in 2012, operating in various industries. Hence, many of our companies did perform strongly last year, although the business environment remains uncertain and full of challenges.”
The top of the largest companies in Romania is still dominated by the Energy & Resources industry, with 14 companies, followed by Consumer Business and Transportation (10), Manufacturing (6), Technology, Media and Telecommunication (4) and Life Sciences and Healthcare (1).
With some signs on the horizon that better economic times lie ahead, including the Eurozone’s recent exit from recession and positive surveys of Polish purchasing managers and German investors and analysts, confidence appears to be returning in key regional and export markets. This is particularly good news for the 202 companies whose revenues declined during 2012, up from 115 in 2011.
?Although Eurozone takes small steps to recovery, companies should remain cautious, as the crisis is not over yet,” said George Mucibabici, Chairman Deloitte Romania. ?Western Europe is the first region showing positive growth rates, but they are still weak and insufficiently supported by Central and Southern Europe. The business environment remains vulnerable to a feeble banking system, increased unemployment rates and social and political restlessness.”
For the first time, the report presents the composition of the management and supervisory boards of CE businesses. In Romania, women and foreigners represent 17.1%, respectively 35.5% of the total number of management board members, which are significantly higher than the 12.2% and 23.8% weights registered among CE Top 500 countries. Figures regarding the composition of supervisory boards are similar for foreigners (36.2% compared to 28.6% in Central Europe), but show a lower percentage of women (11.8% compared to 12.8% in CE).
In two separate rankings of the largest 50 banks and insurance firms, Romania is represented by six banks (one more than in 2012) and four insurance companies (compared to 5, last year).
Deloitte Central Europe Top 500 2013 - highlights
· The region's leading 500 companies registered a steep decline in the growth rate of their combined revenues. This fell from the 12.9% recorded in 2011 to just 3.8%, as combined revenues rose to 724 billion Euro.
· There are 202 companies whose revenues declined during 2012, up from 115 in 2011.
· As in 2012 edition, this year shows a top 10 almost unchanged, dominated by the region’s Energy & Resources companies, which occupy eight places among them including number one (PKN) and two (MOL).
· The biggest surprise in this year’s report was Ukrainian energy company DTEK, which made the most important move up the ranking – from 32nd to 7th place.
· Represented by 166 companies, Poland continues to lead the Top 500 ranking. The Czech Republic maintained the 2nd position, with 87 companies in the ranking. Hungary, Ukraine and Romania follow, with 62, 51 and 35 companies respectively.
· In terms of industries, Real Estate saw the biggest fall in revenues (by 11.7% in Euro), while Consumer Business and Transportation showed the highest growth (4.8%).
· Consumer Business and Transportation continues to dominate the top, by the number of representative companies (158 in total, with combined revenues of 172.89 billion Euro), followed by Energy and Resources (150 companies, yet with highest revenues – 307.25 billion Euro) and Manufacturing (128, summing up to almost 175 billion Euro).
“The market conditions remain difficult, and still affect significantly business decisions. In this respect, the companies should focus next on the improvement of efficiency and operational effectiveness with the aim to generate additional cash flows. Most businesses will find it difficult to obtain credit which impacts overall economic environment and also the large entities even though sometime indirectly,” Ahmed Hassan said.
The full Deloitte Central Europe Top 500 2013 report and other materials are accessible and may be downloaded from the official web page of the program: http://www.deloitte.com/cetop500.
