HN: Number of Czech companies with highest turnover in region grows

Prague, Sept 5 (CTK) - The number of Czech companies in the chart of the top 500 companies with the highest turnover in 18 Central and South Eastern European countries grew from 80 to 84 last year, according to a survey of the firm Deloitte whose results were made public by daily Hospodarske noviny yesterday.

Car maker Skoda Auto ranked third and power utility CEZ was sixth but the value of its assets is the highest in the region.

The winner is Polish PKN Orlen, the same as in 2010, and Hungary's MOL placed second. Only Poland has more companies than the Czech Republic in the chart.

Six Czech companies are among the top 30. Gas company RWE Transgas came 14th, Agrofert, operating in agriculture, food and chemical industry, was 19th, consumer electronics and IT firm Foxconn.cz 25th, and petrochemical holding Unipetrol 28th.

The value of CEZ, moreover, has been appraised as the highest on the stock exchange. CSOB and Ceska sporitelna became the second and third largest banks and Ceska pojistovna and Kooperativa ranked second and third among insurers.

Czech companies did grow slower than, for example, Polish and Slovak ones, but almost twice faster than the whole region, said Deloitte managing partner Josef Kotrba.

The Czech Republic does not rank among the countries threatened the most in the region by the economic crisis, he noted, adding that Bulgaria and Romania were among the states facing the highest risk.