Automobile Dacia, OMV Petrom, OMV Petrom Marketing, Lidl, Kaufland and Ford are the largest companies included in Coface’s Top 500 players in Central and Eastern Europe. Only 56 of the 500 companies included in this ranking are from Romania, two fewer than last year, the first of which, Dacia, is only in 22nd place.
Overall, Romania is the fourth most important country in the top, after Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Turnover of the Romanian companies in the top ten totaled €63.39 billion, 5.3% less than last year, but profits rose 2.7% to €2.99 billion.
There are three dominant sectors in Romania: 1) non-specialized trade, 2) minerals, chemicals, oil, plastics and pharmaceuticals and 3) automotive and transport. The share of each of these sectors exceeds 19% in the turnover of the most represented Romanian companies, but non-specialised trade seems to enjoy the largest share (23.1%).
According to Coface data, this year 30 Romanian companies moved up in the top, 20 fell, two stagnated and four are new entrants. The four new entrants are Farmexim, Nuclearelectrica, Timber Productions and Transelectrica.
There are also three Romanian entrepreneurial companies present in the ECE Top 500, namely Dedeman SRL, Altex Romania and Fildas Trading.
“Last year marked a number of structural changes for economies and companies around the world. Following a difficult 2020, Romania has seen a rapid economic recovery, which has been above the regional average. However, as we see the pandemic unfolding in an unfortunate way, while at the same time the energy crisis and inflation come with challenges to the economic recovery, the business sector needs to keep a close eye on future developments. I am confident that, with vision and courage, local companies can generate sustainable growth and thereby improve their position in regional rankings”, says Eugen Anicescu, Country Manager Coface Romania.
According to him, although Romania has the third largest GDP in the region, we are ranked 4th in terms of companies entering the top and we do not see any company in the top 20.
“A top of countries: as every year, Poland in first place. By the way, the top 4 (in terms of countries of the top companies – ed.) has not changed. We have: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania. Romania is still underperforming. Last year, we had one company in the top 20; we no longer have any company in the top 20, not even in the top 20, even though as the fourth largest country in terms of size and population we should have been represented in the top 10”, said Eugen Anicescu.
Eugen Anicescu said that Romania has more companies increasing their turnover than companies decreasing their turnover, because there are companies in sectors that have benefited from this period.
The average rating of Romanian companies in the top is 7, the second highest of all countries. The Coface Romania representative said that this is due to the fact that Romania has extremely strong companies in the top 500. It is also further proof of the polarization in the Romanian economy.