23 Forbes billionaires business in Rom worth EUR 3.5 bil

About one quarter of the top 100 billionaires in the Forbes top have business worth EUR 3.5 billion in Romania. The figure is similar to that of local Petrom oil giant, Romania's most important company, and to the purchase price of the country's largest commercial bank, Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), by Austrian-based Erste Bank. The figure is also equal to 4 percent of Romania's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2006, Business Standard daily reports.

Investments in Romania of the 23 Forbes billionaires amount to some €1.1 bln. Their companies employ a total of 37,677 people, slightly more than the country's major employer, Posta Romana, which registered some 35,000 employees last year.

Some 65 percent of companies are operating mostly in industry, (62 percent in the steel industry, 2.8 percent in automotive and textile industries), 17.5 percent in retail, 11 percent in construction, and 2 percent in IT&C.

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