For the seventh consecutive year, Romanian oil and gas company OMV Petrom, majority owned by Austria’s OMV, is the biggest company in south-east Europe, according to the ranking for 2013 published by SeeNews agency.

OMV Petrom claimed the top spot despite a drop in revenues by nearly three per cent to 4.27 billion euro in 2013. At the same time, however, its net profit rose to 1.08 billion euro, the highest among the top 100 companies in south-east Europe.

Oil and gas companies continued to dominate the annual SeeNews rankings and to generate the bulk of total revenue, although this decreased by 5.45 per cent to 41.8 billion euro in 2013, and their total profit fell to 659 million euro from 1.09 billion euro.

Romania, the biggest market in the region, expanded its domination of the rankings, with 53 companies on the 2013 list, up from 51 a year earlier.

Despite a 10 per cent drop in assets to 14.16 billion euro, Romania’s Banca Comerciala Romana, a part of Austria’s Erste, was rated the biggest bank in the region for the fourth year in a row.

Croatia’s Zagrebacka Banka ranked second and another Romanian bank, BRD-Groupe Societe Generale, was third. A total of 38 banks in the rankings saw their assets decline in 2013.

Slovenia’s Zavarovalnica Triglav kept the mantle of the region’s biggest insurer in 2013 despite a 6.46 per cent decline in gross written premiums to 605.8 million euro.

The slow economic recovery in the European Union, the main trading partner forcountries in south-east Europe, the sluggish prospects facing most economies in the region and shrunken domestic demand all left their mark on corporate bottom lines in 2013.

At the same time, long overdue structural reforms, fiscal and regulatory volatility and poor infrastructure continued to be a drag on local businesses.