Foreign capital invested in Romanian companies last year was concentrated on strategic sectors of the economy, such as the petroleum industry; the automotive industry; the steel industry; the telecoms sector; banks; and construction supplies - all of which points to a structural difference from previous years.
Foreign investors have entered the capital-intensive industries boldly, making a significant contribution to the creation of gross domestic product. Acquisitions and capital increases of Romanian companies hit record highs last year.
OMV (Austria) and Renault (France) rank first in terms of foreign capital inflows into Romanian companies, totalling 2.25bn euros at the end of 2004, an increase of 46%, National Trade Registry Office data show.
Officials from the Romanian Foreign Investment Agency (ARIS) estimate a foreign investment peak of 3.7bn euros in 2004, twice the level seen in 2003. Expectations for this year point to 3.1bn euros.
While data used to reflect a lack of interest in the Romanian market on the part of strategic investors in the last few years, statistics and reality now show one and the same thing: most refineries, steel mills, banks, retail chains and telephony operators are part of the portfolios of international companies.
The flow of capital from the West has rejuvenated the main actors in the economy, such as Petrom, BCR, Sidex and Dacia - whose ranks will soon be joined by Electrica, Distrigaz Sud and Distrigaz Nord.
It was the privatisation of Romania's biggest company, Petrom, that provided the economy with a jolt.
OMV paid 669 million euros to the Romanian State for one third in the petroleum company and contributed 830 million euros to increase its interest to 51%.
The Petrom-OMV deal also topped the mergers and acquisitions rankings in Central and Eastern Europe. The increasing of Petrom's capital by OMV pushed Petrom's capitalisation on the Bucharest Stock Exchange to a level matching the buyer's at around 6.7bn euros.
The deal also brought Austria into second place in the country of origin rankings for investors, the National Trade Registry Office data reveal.
French carmaker Renault, which has been the owner of the Dacia Pitesti vehicle assembly plant since 1999, last year made its largest investment since its coming to Romania. Renault invested 218 million euros in Dacia in two successive capital increases, a record high compared with previous years. The funds were used for the Logan project, the first completely new car to be made in Pitesti after the arrival of the French. Another record capital increase (217.4 million euros) was made by mobile telephony operator Telemobil for the development of its Zapp network. European giants like Enel (Italy), Gaz de France (France) and E.ON (Germany) entered the Romanian energy market strongly by winning the tenders for the privatisation of natural gas and electricity distributors. These deals, signed last year, are yet to come into force, meaning the capital inflow from these investors will first show in the accounts for this year.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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