Dedeman, Romania’s largest private company by turnover, is the most profitable in Southeastern Europe, with a net profit of almost 300 million euros in 2020, reports Ziarul Financiar. The do-it-yourself retailer owned by the Pavăl brothers ranked first in the SEE TOP 100 ranking by SeeNews, a business news provider based in Sofia.
The first four top earners in the ranking are Romanian companies: state-owned hydropower producer Hidroelectrica ranked second, with a profit of 298.1 million euros; OMV Petrom in the third position, with 283.7 million euros profit last year; and Romgaz in fourth place, with a profit of 262.6 thousand euros.
Amid global lockdowns and a steep economic downturn, companies in Southeast Europe booked only a modest decline in sales, but profits collapsed. Oil companies and car makers, the traditional leaders in the ranking, bore the brunt of the corona pandemic as shrunken consumption, travel restrictions and disrupted supply chains ate into their bottom lines, writes SeeNews. Yet retailers posted double-digit revenue growth, riding the wave of e-commerce.
In terms of revenue, Romanian car maker Dacia leads the SEE TOP 100 ranking for a seventh year running even though its revenue declined by an annual 26% to 3.8 billion euros. Earnings more than halved to 61 million euros as the company had to stop production for more than a month due to the corona pandemic. Furthermore, like other automobile producer, Dacia faced serious shortages of semiconductors that forced it to even suspend production on several occasions.
The situation in the oil and gas sector is even gloomier. The oil and gas companies in SEE TOP 100 saw their combined revenue slump by a quarter, making the sector the biggest loser in the ranking.
The rapid development of online commerce in the region in recent years follows large-scale investments made by retailers in infrastructure, easier online payment processes and the development of new financing options for shopping such as loans instantly approved online, as well as quick delivery of goods. At the same time, discount chains across the region have been expanding rapidly their physical store networks. The Romanian units of Lidl and Kaufland are the sector’s top performers in the ranking, as Kaufland Romania alone invested 300 million euros in 2020.
SEE TOP 100 ranks the biggest companies in Southeast Europe by total revenue for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. Both 2020 figures and 2019 comparative counterparts are sourced from 2020 annual non-consolidated reports. Тhe SEE TOP 100 ranking covers non-financial companies registered in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Banks, investment intermediaries, insurers and real estate investment trusts are excluded from the ranking as total revenue is not an accurate indicator of their performance.
