Crisis-ridden region

autor zdjęcia: Piotr Guzik

źródło: Fotorzepa

Janusz Piechociński, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Herbert Wirth, President of KGHM (with the Index of Succes award) Alastair Teare, CEO Deloitte Central Europe, and Bogusław Chrabota, Editor-in-chief of "Rz."

The economic slowdown took a great toll on companies and it was a very difficult year

PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ

During yesterday's festive gala another edition of Europe 500 was presented, i.e. a list of the largest companies from the region, put together by Rzeczpospolita and Deloitte. The annual Index of Success Award was given to KGHM Polska Miedź, which was distinguished for its continuous growth of revenues and development.

"The chapter had a difficult nut to crack, because it is a true art to award not only the largest, but simply the best companies," said Janusz Piechociński, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy when giving the award.

The presentation of the list has been one of the highlights of the first day of the Economic Forum in Krynica for many years now.

Altogether, companies included in the list recorded growth of revenues in 2012 by, on average, 3.3% compared to 9.8% in the previous edition of Europe 500. However, the drop in revenues was recorded by almost every second company in the ranking, and exactly in the case of 202 of them. Unfavourable trends are still very much visible, because in the case of some companies that also record quarterly results, after 1Q, the results are worse than in the corresponding period of time in 2012.

We can already see a drop in revenues by 0.5 per cent in Euro and by 0.9 per cent in national currencies.

"Rankings are one of the things we excel at but, at the same time, they also support the...