Annual ranking of the biggest companies in Southeast Europe
by Gregor Potocar, Managing Director of SAP SEE Southеast Europe (SEE) is a highly important region for SAP - the business software company employs more than 1600 people in this region alone, most of them in development and engineering positions. There ...
by Julian Gikov, Konstantin Ivanov, Octavian Goga, Helena Simicevic, Raiffeisen Bank International Growth on the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market in Southeast Europe (SEE) continued to accelerate in 2017 and 2018. M&A activity in most SEE ...
By Petar Galev, Viktor Laskov, Boyan Ivanovich, Maria Simeonova, Media analysts, Perceptica The automotive market in Southeast Europe (SEE) offered some interesting dynamics in 2016, as locally produced models vied for the consumers’ attention with some ...
By Nevena Krasteva Growing domestic demand amid historically low inflation and a pick-up in private investmentand employment continued to drive economic growth in Southeast Europe (SEE) in 2016. Economic tailwinds benefited most retailers and car makers ...
by Julian Gikov, Aleksander Biesaga, Richard Golden, Raiffeisen Bank International Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) considers Austria as well as Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market, where it is a leading corporate and investment ban ...
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.
Julian Gikov is Director at Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), covering Southeast European M&A operations, where he has been involved in deals advisory for the last nine years. He has extensive investment banking experience in the energy, TMT, heavy ...
2014 was a limited success year for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Southeast Europe (SEE), but an analysis of deals already announced in 2015 indicates an improving outlook. In the past couple of years, the M&A activity in most SEE countries suffered to differing degrees from slower economic growth, the small size of the national consumer markets and political instability. Nevertheless, local specifics rather than common features tended to determine the main drivers of M&A in each country.
Despite serious concerns at the beginning of the crisis, most of Western and Eastern Europe have weathered the impact of the Russia- Ukraine crisis relatively well so far, as the growth momentum in the Eurozone turned out stronger than the downward pressures from the crisis, caused by recessions in Russia and Ukraine and the sanctions/countersanctions.
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 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.
In 2011 the IT sector in Southeast Europe suffered from the instability of the national economies but managed to achieve growth in most of the countries in the region.
The sector continued to rely on government spending on IT, investment from telecommunications companies and outsourcing contracts.