The number of Romanian companies using capital markets remains limited and lags behind other countries in the region such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a report on the Romanian capital market published on Wednesday.

According to the report, since 2000, 18 Romanian companies have carried out initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, as a result of which they have raised 1.3 billion euros. 11 of these companies were listed from 2000 to 2009, but the amounts attracted from investors accounted for only 16% of the total amounts in the period 2000-2019. In the period 2010-2017, only seven companies were listed, but they collected 84% of the total listings, respectively 1.1 billion euros. Since 2018, no company has been listed on the main market.

The OECD points out that in terms of IPOs, activity in Romania exceeds only that recorded in Hungary, where since 2000 and until now 15 IPOs have been registered, amounting to 544 million euros. Throughout the period 2000-2019, Romanian IPOs were responsible for only 0.24% of the total funds raised by EU companies through initial public offerings, according to Agerpres.

The OECD points out that four of the five largest IPOs conducted after 2000 in Romania belonged to state-owned companies in the utilities and energy sectors. The largest IPO in the history of the local stock market is the 2014 Electrica listing, which raised 460 million euros. Similarly, SNGN Romgaz SA raised 400 million euros on the occasion of its 2013 IPO.

Even if only five of the 18 IPOs carried out in Romania belonged to state-owned companies, they represented almost 90% of the total amounts collected after 2000.