Agrokor and the INA group are at the top of the list of the Top 100 companies in the Adria region, published today by the consulting and auditing firm Deloitte. The top five positions on the list, based on sales revenue in 2008, also include the Serbian NIS and the Slovenian Petrol and Mercator.
The list is dominated by companies from the retail and production sectors of consumer goods and energy. The largest number of companies on the list, 38, comes from Slovenia, followed by Croatian (30) and Serbian companies (23). The largest number of companies, 34, comes from the consumer goods sector, followed by the energy sector with 29 represented companies. A policy of strong expansion through organic growth and selective acquisitions has secured Agrokor’s leading position on the list. Agrokor also achieved the highest annual revenue growth of 36 percent, while the Serbian Delta M had slightly lower growth (35 percent). – The consequences of the global financial crisis began to be felt in the economies of the Adria region countries in the last quarter of 2008.
It currently seems likely that the average GDP in the region will decrease by between 3 and 6 percent during 2009, which is convincingly the weakest annual result since the early 1990s. Despite the different structures of the economies in the region, the level of reduction in their GDP will be similar. As a result of this significant and sudden decrease in economic activity, and even faster spread of illiquidity, careful cash management has become of utmost importance for all companies and government administrations in the region, notes Ivica Krešić, director in the Financial Advisory Department at Deloitte.
