Over 196,000 companies with foreign shareholders were registered in Romania, at the end of August 2014, 2.2% more than at the end of last year.

The foreign contribution to the capital of these firms was of some EUR 39.3 billion, EUR 1.6 billion more than at the end of December 2013, according to recent data from the Trade Registry.

Companies in the Netherlands were the largest foreign investors in Romania, with EUR 7.77 billion subscribed in local companies, which is almost 22% of the total external contribution to the capital of Romanian companies.

Companies in Austria are second, with 14.3% of the overall foreign capital contributions, Germany is third, with 12.6%, and Cyprus comes fourth, with 7.5%.

When taking into account the number of registered companies, most of them have Italian shareholders, some 38,700 or 20% of the total. Companies with German shareholders represent 10.5% and those with Turkish shareholders are about 7% of the total number of local companies with foreign shareholders.

According to the data from the Trade Registry, mining and quarrying, financial intermediation, trade and construction are the sectors with the highest levels of foreign investments.

Some 470 companies with foreign shareholders were created in August in Romania.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com