Foreign investment reaches 1.2bn euros at nine months

Foreign investment attracted to Romania in September amounted to 63 million euros, 0.6% more than the previous month. Including these new investments, total foreign direct investment for the first nine months of the year amounted to nearly 1.2bn euros, according to the statistics from the National Trade Registry Office (ONRC). The number of newly formed companies in September was of 890, and their share capital totalled 4.5 million euros. Most of the new companies were established in the Bucharest-Ilfov region (313) and in the northwest and central regions of the country (145 and 117, respectively). Of the newly registered companies, it was Italian investors who were behind most of the new start-ups for September (236) with 26.5% of the total of new companies, followed by Germans (95) and Hungarians (65). ONRC data show that the top trading company in terms of a foreign contribution to the total share capital subscribed in September was Ispat Sidex (a majority investor registered in the Netherlands Antilles) with 16.1 million euros, followed by Aro (US-based majority investor) with 4.3 million euros. ZF