NIS ranks first in incomes in 2008 - "Ekonomist" announced list of top 300 companies in Serbia

On the list of top 300 companies in Serbia, based on the incomes in 2008, which was announced today (November 23, 2009) by Belgrade-based "Ekonomist Media Group", the first is "Petroleum Industry of Serbia" (NIS) whose incomes amounted to 305 billion RSD (3.7 billion EUR).

The second is "Delta holding" with the incomes of 148.5 billion RSD, and that is the first private company that ranks so high on the list. "Electric Power Company of Serbia" is the third with the incomes of 145.9 billion RSD.

These three companies are followed by "Telekom Srbija" (105.3 billion RSD), "U.S. Steel" Srbija (85.9 billion RSD), "Srbijagas" (61.1 billion RSD), "Jugorosgas" (51.8 billion RSD) and "Lukoil-Beograd" (39 billion RSD), while "East point" (37.9 billion RSD) and "Putevi Srbije" (31.2 billion RSD) are among top ten Serbian companies for the first time.

The incomes of the first ten companies on the list equal represent one third of overall incomes of top 300 companies in Serbia, which were 20% larger than in 2007. The companies' net debts were also increased in 2008, by nearly 30%.

At the presentation of TOP 300 list, the representatives of company "Altis Capital", for the needs of which "Ekonomist" processed and analysed the performances of Serbian companies, pointed out that the state-owned and public companies registered about 900m EUR worth of losses in 2008.

According to the estimates, the losses would even be bigger if "Telekom Srbija" and several other companies that have the monopoly positions were not among those companies.

Total of 27.1% of companies from the TOP 300 list are in energy business, 11.4% of them are in trade business, 9.6% of companies deal with production of food and drinks, while 8.9% operate in retail sector.

The representatives of the most successful companies said that their business results in 2009 would be worse because of the economic crisis, but they estimated that the beginning of economic recovery was expected in 2010.