Croatian companies well represented in Central Europe’s top 500.
Despite the crisis, the income of the 500 biggest companies in Central Europe has grown by 122 billion euros since 2007. The list of the top 500 companies includes 22 companies from Croatia. The highest ranked among them is Agrokor, with 4.58 billion euros in sales revenue, according to a Deloitte analysis of the top companies in the region. High on the list are Ina (39) and HEP (97), while the largest move has been achieved by the Roglić Group which jumped from 249th to 195th position, reports Vecernji List on September 11, 2015.
“Agrokor’s acquisition of Mercator secured its high position on the list. Since just partially consolidated business results were included last year, the next year’s ranking will show a considerable leap for the consolidated group that will annually generate more than 7 billion euros in revenue. Agrokor should rank among the top 10 companies in Central Europe”, said Uroš Kalinić, a senior manager at Financial Advisory Department at Deloitte.
In the financial sector, the best ranked is Zagrebačka Banka, which is 12th by assets among the banks in the region, while the best ranked insurer is Croatia Osiguranje at the 19th position.
Commenting on the rankings and the drop in income of some of the Croatian companies, Blaženka Knežević, a professor at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, pointed to the fact that one third of the income of the average Croatian household goes to meet the basic needs, while in Austria the share is 15 percent. “There is not enough money to spend on other needs, and a wage growth is necessary for further recovery”, warned Knežević.
Zdravko Marić, the executive director of Agrokor, said that the integration of Agrokor and Mercator creates new opportunities for manufacturers who can now spread their business to the broader markets. Similar opportunities will be offered by Orbico’s acquisitions as well. “We are currently negotiating the takeover of two companies in Ukraine. Within two years we will have around 2 billion euros in turnover, 700 million euros just in Poland, and about 10 percent of goods will be from Croatia”, said Branko Roglić, the owner of Orbico.
Marina Tonžetić from Deloitte also talked about the need for additional investments of companies in e-commerce and m-commerce, noting that this year 65 percent of the world’s population will have mobile phones.
