A major new report on the region’s companies, the SeeNews Top 100, has ranked Automobile Dacia, the Renault-owned Romanian car manufacturer, as the largest company in Southeast Europe with 5.34 billion euros of revenues in 2018, a 5.6 per cent increase on 2017.

The study, which measures Southeast European companies in terms of total revenues in 2018, put Slovenian energy company Petrol in second place with more than 4.3 billion euros of total revenues, a 15.15 per cent rise year-on-year while OMV Petrom, the Romanian subsidiary of Austrian petroleum company OMV was ranked third with more than 4.1 billion euros (close to 21 per cent higher than in 2017). OMV Petrom’s net profit was the highest in whole Southeast Europe in 2018 – 831.8 million euros.

The leading three are followed by OMV Petrom Marketing, the Romanian energy company’s marketing arm with 3.8 billion euros (18.5 per cent higher than in 2017) and Rompetrol Rafinare, with 3.04 billion euros, a close to 22.8 per cent increase year-on-year.

Bulgarian energy company Lukoil Neftochim Burgas (three billion euros), Croatian energy company INA (2.96 billion euros), Bulgarian metals manufacturer Aurubis Bulgaria (close to 2.6 billion euros), Slovenian electricity provider GEN-I (2.4 billion euros) and Serbia’s JP Elektroprivreda (2.4 billion euros) also made it to the top 10.

“Steady, consumption-led economic growth and increasing wages brought record-high sales to the top companies in the region in 2018, giving them room to continue to expand their operations. An abundant flow of foreign direct investment, complemented by EU funds, easily available low-rate bank funding, and the solid economic performance of Western Europe further contributed to growth,” reads the report.