This year, only 16 Romanian-held firms entered the Top 100 Most Valuable Companies, drawn up by ZF in partnership with investment firm Capital Partners.

The most valuable Romanian-held companies account for just 9% of the overall value of the top 100 companies on the domestic market, which amounted to 93.6bn euros in 2007.

A rising number of Romanian firms with important positions in the top 100 are choosing to expand across borders and target regional positions, such as RCS&RDS, Arabesque and European Drinks.

Romanian businessmen who hold stakes in domestic firms in the top 100 include Zoltan Tszari, Horia Ciorcila, Dan Ioan Popp, Sorin Creteanu, Ovidiu Tender, Ilie Carabulea, Cezar Rapotan and the Micula brothers.

The most profitable Romanian businesses are in the constructions and real estate sectors.

However, RCS&RDS IT&C, controlled by businessman Zoltan Teszari, registered the fastest growth rate.

Romanian-held financial services firms also took the top positions in the overall list, Banca Transilvania at fourteenth, and Banca Carpatica at eighty-ninth. Last year, Asirom too was included amongst the most valuable Romanian companies, but has since been acquired by Vienna Insurance. Another "Romanian" company, Rompetrol Group (although registered in the Netherlands), which was recently sold, belongs to businessman Dinu Patriciu.

RCS&RDS holds the top position of Romanian held companies, with a market value of 1.65bn euros, however the company ranks thirteenth overall. Banca Transilvania ranks second among the top Romanian-held companies, with a capitalisation worth 1.6bn euros. SIFs, which were evaluated at over 3.1bn euros at the end of September, filled the next five positions.

Portfolios worth millions of euros with stakes in hundreds of companies (which include the largest banks on the market) that SIFs have, la