Annual ranking of the biggest companies in Southeast Europe
By Klaudjo Jonuzaj Artan Gjergji Albanian Securities Exchange CEO The private Albanian Securities Exchange (ALSE) was founded by Tirana-headquartered Credins Bank and American Bank of Investment (ABI Bank) with 42.5% shareholding interest each and ...
Regional insurance group Sigal Uniqa Group Austria is composed of seven insurance companies (life, non-life, reinsurance) and one pension fund that operate successfully in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. Sigal Uniqa is the market leader in Albania since 20 ...
After several tough years, economic activity in Southeast Europe (SEE) picked up in 2015 and continued to strengthen in 2016, supporting an improving performance of the region’s corporate sector.
The slow recovery in the European Union, Southeast Europe’s (SEE) main trading partner, the sluggish prospects facing nearly all economies in the region and shrunken domestic demand all left their mark on corporate bottomlines 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. Against this backdrop, the performance of the companies in the SEE TOP 100 ranking was expectedly lackluster – their combined revenues in 2013 were flattish, with nearly half of the entrants seeing a decline in their revenues.
The patchy performance of the economies of the countries in Southeast Europe (SEE) proved a drag on the region’s insurance industry in 2013, leading to a drop of 2.0% to 6.2 billion euro in the combined gross written premiums (GWP) of the entrants in the 2013 edition of the SEE TOP 100 insurers ranking compared to the companies that made the 2012 cut.
• Market consolidation, spread of private labels and discounters in focus
• Agrokor/Mercator deal to have strong impact on retail landscape
• Most SEE grocery markets offer room for M&As
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) raised its investments in Southeast Europe, a region that has remained particularly vulnerable to the effects of problems in the eurozone, to around 1.65 billion euro in 2013 from 1.5 billion euro in 2012. In 2013, EBRD investments remained strong in Turkey, totalling around 920 million euro. In the Western Balkans and Croatia, the EBRD invested a record 1.2 billion euro in more than 80 projects in 2013.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Its headquarters are in Thessaloniki, in Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The bank’s authorised capital is 3.45 billion euro. BSTDB is rated long-term “A-” by Standard and Poor’s and “A2” by Moody’s.
The transport infrastructure of SEE consists of national transport systems and a number of integrated international networks that upon their completion should ensure quick and unhampered movement of people and goods across Europe. This makes the integrated European transport system a key prerequisite for the seamless operation of the internal market and for the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the European countries.
Sector players operating in SEE are trying to survive amid policy uncertainty and retrospective changes in legislation, falling subsidies and reluctant financing. Yet, a quick browse through news headlines from the first half of 2013 shows that interest in renewable energy is picking up in SEE.
The global economic slowdown of 2012 was far sharper than expected and its impact on the economies of Southeast Europe turned the spotlight on the region’s structural weaknesses whilst also exacerbating the effects of the eurozone debt crisis. For these economies, 2013 is a year of readjustment and renewing commitments to creating robust and sustainable economic growth, an approach which is forecast to result in more promising rates of real output in 2014.
Since 2003 Raicommerce Construction has been the main partner of Sofia’s water supply and sewerage company Sofiyska Voda, a unit of Veolia Water. We are in charge of the maintenance of 40% of the capital city’s water supply and sewer network.
The performance of SEE’s TOP 100 insurers in 2012 is something of a feat. Judging by the overall figures, insurance companies may have finally glimpsed the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel given expectations for a return to GDP growth (albeit very modest) in the region.
Slovenia continues to show the best performance in the SEE TOP 100 per capita ranking with Slovenian companies dominating the top positions. As many as 40 firms entered the 2012 list. Slovenian fuel retailer Petrol ranked first for the fifth consecutive year.
Albania will aim to develop its mountain tourism in an effort to generate more revenue from its tourist sector and to increase the share of tourism in its gross domestic product, a new strategy blueprint indicates.
Tourism is among the most important sectors in the economy of Albania. According to official statistics it generates 10% of the country’s gross domestic product which is estimated to have reached some 13 billion U.S. dollars (10.5 billion euro) in 2011.