Main listed firms not yet hurt by BSE crash

Gheorghe Calburean, Raul Ciurtin, Emanoil Viciu and Mircea Vescan, the managers and main shareholders in some of the best-known listed Romanian companies, say stock declines are the only visible fallout of the financial crisis and that no significant problems have emerged at an operational level.

Listed companies' managers say that, for the time being, there is no fallout from the international financial crisis that has deepened recently, specifying it is too early for this, and most of them cannot foresee what effects the crisis would have on their activities in the future.

The first visible effect on the Bucharest Stock Exchange is a steep decline in company stocks, which makes capital increases on the market almost impossible, they add. "(...) For the time being, we're not feeling the effects of the crisis at a company level. On the medium term I cannot say what will happen. I'm still upbeat. The sector we operate in would be the last to be hurt by a crisis because people still have to eat. It's the most resilient to such trouble," says Raul Ciurtin, chairman and main shareholder of Albalact Alba-Iulia, whose market value has shrunk 3 times since the start of this year. However, a surge in operating costs drove the company's income down by around 85% in the first half, to less than 1m RON, while turnover rose by 19% to 89m RON. However, the company's representatives say profitability will rebound as a new plant, built from scratch, will start operating, and the old one will be closed down.

The dairy producer's shares last week lost 10% on RASDAQ market, a small decrease compared with other companies. BET index lost around 15% in the same interval. With a 15% turnover increase in H1 and 13% higher income, the shares of Dafora Medias drilling and constructions firm have followed a similarly downward trend over the past months. Since the start of the year, the company controlled by Gheorghe Calburean has seen its market value shrink by over 60%.