Zagreb Holding Among the Top Five Best Companies

The consulting firm Deloitte and the business weekly Lider presented the list of the 500 largest companies in 17 Central European countries, including 12 Croatian companies. Lists of the 50 strongest banks and 50 insurance companies in the region were also presented, among which are four Croatian banks and three insurance companies.

The two leading companies in Central Europe are PKN and Mol, followed by Škoda, the manufacturing part in the Czech Republic, PGE in Poland, ČEZ Czech Republic, and Audi Hungary. Among Croatian companies on the list, the largest jump was recorded by Agrokor, which is in 20th place this year, and HT, which is 129th. Alongside them on the list are Ina (17th place), Konzum (103rd), HEP Group (117th), Pliva (260th), as well as T-Mobile, HŽ, Vipnet, HEP Production, Podravka, and Zagreb Holding. Among Croatian banks on the list are Zaba, PBZ, Erste, and RBA, while among insurers are Croatia osiguranje, Allianz Zagreb, and Euroherc osiguranje.

– The banking sector is already consolidated and the growth rates of that market have slowed, but the profitability of banks is increasing – said Ivica Krešić, director in the Financial Advisory Department of Deloitte, at the publication presentation. Overall, the most companies come from Poland, followed by the Czech Republic and Hungary, with Croatian companies making up 2.4 percent. The list is dominated by the energy sector, followed by manufacturing and consumer goods. Interestingly, the largest Slovenian companies are positioned better than the best Croatian companies. Slovenia is represented by 18 companies, of which 30 percent are from the manufacturing sector, Serbia has seven, Macedonia one, and there are no Bosnian-Herzegovinian companies among the 500 strongest. The editor of the business weekly Lider, Miodrag Šajatović, presenting the publication of the 500 best companies in Croatia in 2007 based on newly created value, stated that the assumption to make it to the list of the 500 strongest in Central Europe is to be among the 500 largest in Croatia.

– Croatian companies are not export-oriented, which is why they cannot achieve higher growth rates. A management team is necessary to create a development and growth strategy, and their work should be evaluated based on whether they have progressed or regressed – said Šajatović. Among the 500 best Croatian companies in 2007, the powerful quartet – HT, Ina, Zagrebačka banka, and Privredna banka – maintained high positions, and a new entry in the top five is Zagreb Holding, which significantly rose in 2006 (from 287th to 15th place). The companies on the list of the 500 best, compiled by the Institute for Business Research, created an average of 17.9 million euros in added value. The impressive figure of a total of 8.96 billion in newly created value, or 9.8 percent more than in 2006, nevertheless warns of slower growth than the previous year, when the 500 best were responsible for 8.1 billion euros, or 28.15 percent more than in 2005.

Although 2007 was, according to many indicators, fertile ground for new investments and bold business decisions for the 500 best companies, only in the categories of productivity and profit did they achieve higher growth than in 2006. However, at the same time, a 13.5 percent higher productivity than in 2006 can be explained by a reduction in the total number of employees by three percent.
All other indicators of the 500 best companies grew slower than in 2006. Each of these companies exported goods and services worth an average of 12.8 million euros, totaling 6.4 billion euros, which is 14.2 percent more than in 2006, while the entire economy exported nine billion euros, achieving a growth of 11 percent. However, in 2006, exports compared to 2005 grew by as much as 42 percent.

In percentage terms, exports accounted for 12.6 percent of the revenues of the 500 best, and these companies achieved 70 percent of the total export results of the economy. Revenues also grew slower (9.5 percent, compared to 14.4 percent in 2006), amounting to 40.99 billion euros, or an average of 81.9 million euros per company. The top 500 can indeed boast higher profits and faster growth than the previous year, as well as an increase in assets to 97.6 billion euros. Profit is thus higher by 17.2 percent, which is a noticeably higher growth than in 2006, when it was 5.3 percent. (Bojana Božanić)