Romania’s Petrom Gains Top Spot Among Biggest SEE Companies

Acording to the report, the Romanian companies dominate the second annual ranking of the top 100 companies in Southeastern Europe, with 43 companies among the best performers in the region.

The Romanian companies in the ranking were predominantly from the sectors of oil and gas, electricity, and wholesale and retail.

The top includes ten Southeastern European countries, namely Romania, Moldova Republic, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania.

Petrom, owned by Austria's OMV, ranks first, with EUR4.8 billion revenues in 2008. It is followed by Croatia's oil and gas company INA - Industrija Nafte, owned by Hungary's MOL, with EUR3.65 billion revenues, and Bulgarian oil refining company LukOil Neftochim, held by Russia's LukOil, with EUR3.64 billion revenues.

INA ranked first in last year's classification.

The study also includes a classification of companies by net profit growth in 2008, led by Romanian state-owned power grid Electrica, whose profit rose from EUR271,000 in 2007 to over EUR300 million in 2008 due to the sale of the majority stake in regional power distributor Electrica Muntenia Sud to Italy's Enel.

SeeNews also compiled a separate ranking of the Top 50 largest banks in terms of total assets in Southeastern Europe in 2008, with Romanian lenders BCR and BRD, owned by Austria's Erste, and French group Societe Generale, respectively, ranking second and third, after Slovenia's Nova Ljubljanska Banka.

Slovenia's largest bank, Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), led the TOP 50 Banks ranking with total assets of EUR18.9 billion at the end of 2008. NLB has units in 16 European countries, including seven in the Southeastern Europe.

Romania's largest lender Banca Comerciala Romana is second with EUR17.3 billion in total assets. BCR also was the bank with the highest net profit in the Southeastern Europe in 2008, EUR510.8 million.

The Romanian unit of French banking group Societe Generale, BRD, came third with EUR12.8 billion in total assets. It was also the second largest in terms of net profit, which totaled EUR393.4 million in 2008.

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