ZF reveals local private capital rankings in 2007

The sale of Rompetrol by Dinu Patriciu last year has altered positions in the ranking of Romanian-held companies. The biggest private company held by Romanian shareholders is now Arabesque, while Banca Transilvania remains the most important financial institution with Romanian capital.
Romanian private capital continues to have two banks at the top – Banca Transilvania and Banca Carpatica, while Tiriac Group’s leasing unit ranks tenth.
The seven biggest companies with Romanian shareholders posted more than 2 billion euros in turnover last year, according to the data centralised by ZF.
The biggest firm, Arabesque, owned by businessman Cezar Rapotan posted a business worth almost half a billion euros last year, an increase of more than 30% on 2006. The top companies include Transilvania General Import-Export (part of the European Food & Drinks group), Altex, Cuprom, Interagro, Trust Motors and Ambient.
As a comparison, the biggest company in Romania, Petrom, had budgeted turnover worth 10.6 billion RON (3.19 billion euros) for 2007.
The scope of the businesses developed by local entrepreneurs continues to narrow; with multinationals and state-held energy companies still the dominant members of the billionaires club. However, the business of the Micula Brothers comes close to one billion euros, if the volume of sales from all their companies is taken into account.
ZF’s analysis, however, sets out to identify the business generated by the most representative company (one legal entity) from the groups held by local entrepreneurs. Beyond this, groups such as Mobexpert, held by Dan Sucu, Radu and Cristina Timis’s Cris-Tim, Gruia Stoica’s transport business (Grampet) and Ilie Vonica’s pharmaceutical distribution business (Polisano) come close to the 200 million-euro mark.
Twelve companies (Petrom, Lukoil, Rompetrol Rafinare, Electrica, Mittal Steel Galati, Automobile Dacia, Orange, Vodafone, Metro Cash & Carry, Rewe Group, Interbrands and Porsche) totalled businesses worth over one billion euros at the end of 2007, according to current data.
Until last year, the biggest group held by a Romanian businessman was Rompetrol.
The sale to the state-run Kazakh company KazMunaiGas of the majority interest confirmed Dinu Patriciu as the richest Romanian, and changed the ranking of the top Romanian-held companies.
The ranking shows that the biggest local players hail from fields such as construction, retail, and financial services, sectors that are witnessing the fastest-paced growth throughout the entire economy.