Dutch investors bet on environment, infrastructure and energy

“The sectors I estimate will see stepped up activity on the part of Dutch investors after Romania joins the European Union are environment, infrastructure and energy,” states Marjolyn Van Deelen, manager of the environment and economy department of the Dutch Embassy in Bucharest.

Thus far, banks, financial services, beer, dairy, oil, transportation and the food industry have all been main targets of the Dutch, who on Sunday, April 30th will celebrate their National Day.

More recently, the investors from the Netherlands have focused on two other high-potential businesses – the real estate sector, currently one of the most attractive in Europe, and the hotel industry, which also has a high development potential.

For eight years, the Netherlands has been the dominant foreign investor in Romania.

The companies headquartered in the Netherlands rank first in country ranking by foreign capital contributions to Romanian companies, totalling a value of 2.191 billion euros at the end of last year, according to data released by the National Trade Registry Office (ONRC).

The NBR”s statistics related to the inflow of foreign capital to Romania show the Dutch on the top spot in 2004, followed by the Austrians and the French.

Besides the 100% Dutch corporations, such as Shell, ING, ABN Amro, Heineken, Unilever and Royal Brinkers, Friesland and Damen, there are also major investors on the Romanian market that appear as registered in the Netherlands, even though this is not the country where their capital comes from.

The very attractive fiscal regime has pushed many international corporations, irrespective of the country their capital comes from, to choose the Netherlands as their jurisdiction.

Thus, the “Dutch” list also includes names like the Rompetrol Group BV oil group, the aluminium producer Alro Slatina, the pharmaceutical company A & D Pharma, the Philip Morris tobacco company and the cable operator UPC Romania.

At the end of last year, there were 2,288 Dutch held companies in Romania, according to Dutch Embassy data.

Bilateral trade indicates a plus for Romania of 22.37 million euros in 2005. The Netherlands imported goods, commodities and services worth 597 million euros, while Dutch exports to Romania amounted to 575 million euros.

Over the past year, Romanian companies have boosted deliveries of mineral products by 220%, chemical products by 34.5% and metals by 20.7% onto the Dutch market.

Conversely, imports have also increased in the market of cars, aeronautics and transportation equipment (by 78%), wood, paper (57%), plastics and rubber (45%).

adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro; mihaela.popescu@zf.ro