Energy Holding was again the most influential private energy trader last year despite the loss of huge clients like Petrom and Oltchim, which generated 100 million-euro lower revenues compared with 2007.

In all, the biggest private energy traders reached about 580 million-euro revenues last year, slightly lower than in 2007, especially because of the effect that Energy Holding had on the ranking. During this time however, three companies in the ranking witnessed spectacular rises in net profit.

The leader of the ranking in terms of profit growth was again Energy Holding, which posted 24.4 million-euro net income in 2008, compared with 3.9 million euros in 2007. Buzmann Industries and Elcomex EN in turn posted significant profit increases, 76.6% and 100% respectively.

Last year also came with significant changes in the ranking of the top five private electricity traders, of which only Energy Holding retained its position as leader.

"Last year was a year of growth for most industries, so that there's an explanation for the turnover increase of most companies in this ranking. At the same time, I also believe that most private traders will be able to preserve their profits despite of what is going on the market now," says Jean Constantinescu, energy market analyst and former chairman of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE).

Compared with last year, when Energy Holding controlled about 6% of the energy sales to the competitive segment, this year it has vanished from ANRE's reports, replaced by EHOL Distribution. EHOL Distribution was established in mid 2008 and sources on the market say that most of the energy contracts of Energy Holding were transferred to this company. EHOL Distribution has recently been acquired by Swiss Alpiq group, whose business stands at about 10 billion euros.

From 2000 through 2004, Energy Holding sig