Iron and steel has deposed mobile telephony as the most profitable business sector in Romania in 2004.
The rankings were drawn up by the National Council of Private Small and Middle-Sized Enterprises (CNIPMMR), which uses gross income as its main criterion.
Orange Romania and MobiFon lost their positions as the top most profitable private companies in Romania to Ispat Sidex of Galati, with Mittal Steel Hunedoara climbing to third position.
Sidex''s climb up the rankings was the most spectacular. The company has come from yearly losses of 100 million dollars in 2000 to achieve income levels that would turn any manager of a multinational company green with envy.
Ispat Sidex logged the highest level of gross income at 13,745bn ROL (339 million euros), almost 4,000bn ROL (100 million euros) more than its rivals in the mobile telephony field, which reported gross profits of 9,750bn ROL (241 million euros) and 8,150bn ROL (201 million euros), respectively.
Still, the profits derived by the two companies were significantly higher than last year: Orange''s gross income was 3,340bn ROL (82 million euros) higher than in 2003, while MobiFon''s profits increased by 1,850bn ROL (46 million euros).
Behind the top three were Mittal Steel Hunedoara, with 7,410bn ROL (182 million euros), Roman of Brasov, 3,610bn ROL (89 million euros), and Lafarge Romcim, 2,200bn ROL (54 million euros).
New to the top ten were World Trade Center Bucharest (hotels), with 1,590bn ROL (39 million euros), and Holcim Romania (cement), 1,270bn ROL (31 million euros). The steepest fall in rankings was taken by Porsche Romania (cars), which dropped to ninth position with 1,370bn ROL (34 million euros), having previously ranked third in 2003 with profits of 1,275bn ROL (34 million euros).
Metro Cash & Carry is in a similar position, dropping from fifth to seventh position, despite reporting gross profits of 1,770bn ROL (44m euros) in 2004, against only 821bn ROL (22 million euros) the previous year.
The largest companies in terms of turnover last year were Petrom (2.1bn euros), Sidex (1.69bn euros), Petromidia (1.15bn euros), Metro (1.025bn euros), RomTelecom (822m euros), Rafo (634m euros), Orange (607m euros), Dacia (592m euros), Connex (565m euros) and Distrigaz Sud (535m euros).
The highest positions in the rankings for medium-sized enterprises in terms of profitability were held by BCR Leasing from Bucharest with 211bn ROL (5.2m euros), Datatim (IT) from Timisoara with 201bn ROL (5.5m euros), and Hungastro (meal tickets) from Sfantu Gheorghe with 179bn ROL (4.9m euros).
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