Listed companies' earnings 60% lower than in 2008

Companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) totaled RON 590 mln (almost €140 mln) in net profit in the first three months of this year, down 62 percent compared to Q1 2008, after registering losses worth some €150 million in the final quarter of last year.

Without including the profit of Petrom, the largest Romanian company listed on BVB, 60 issuers had a profit of RON 78.5 mln (€18.4 mln) in the first quarter of 2009, down a staggering 95 percent year-on-year. According to data centralized by Business Standard, 20 companies posted losses in the first three months of this year, compared to 36 issuers in Q4 2008. "The final quarter is usually a special one due to provisions. Q4 2009 will probably look better, but some companies may still post losses or drops. Small enterprises may not even be out of the woods yet. Actually, not even large companies are out of the woods yet, considering the poor macroeconomic data," said an analyst within the UniCredit CA IB Securities Romania broker, Adriana Marin.

The businesses of listed companies amounted to RON 14.5 billion (€3.4 bln), a level similar to that registered in Q1 2008. "The big shock was in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, when companies went through restructuring programs and adopted measures to counter the effects of the crisis, so things should now stabilize financially. Towards the end of this year, we could see an improvement of companies' situation, followed by an improvement in the perspective of the share market," said the General Manager of BT Securities, the brokerage division of the Banca Transilvania lender, Rares Nilas. Only three companies registered profit exceeding RON 100 mln in the first three months, (Petrom, BRD-Groupe Societe Generale lender, and Transgaz state-owned gas transportation company), totaling RON 861 mln worth of earnings.

Business Standard