Capital 50: Sopharma and Oil and Gas Exploration and Production are the best public companies

For the third year in a row ''Sopharma” is rated the best public company in Bulgaria for ''Large capitalization”. For small companies the winner is ''Oil and Gas Exploration and Production”, which is part of the ''Chimimport” Group.

Such is the result of the sixth annual ranking ''Capital 50” (the successor to ''Dnevnik 100”). The company featuring the best corporate governance is ''Monbat” and the first place among companies having for special investment purpose real estate was taken by ''Advance Terrafond”. The results were announced during the conference of ''Capital”: ''Future of the Capital Market”. Dictatorship of exporters The top 10 among large companies are entirely dominated by exporting companies and there are some serious movement upwards. For example, a company from the ''Stara Planina Hold” group, ''М+S Hydraulik” and the holding itself which took the 5th and 6th place. Similar is the situation with the fertilizer producer ''Neochim” and the glass products producer ''Drujba Glassworks SA” which took the 4th and 7th позиция. Here is also the place of accumulator producer ''Monbat”. Heavily influenced by the recovery ''The companies’ results were heavily influenced by the recovery of foreign markets”. However, they may prove to be the main challenge for this year. Europe is currently struggling with the consequences of the debt crisis - reduced consumer and business confidence, falling retail sales and an uncertain future. All this reflects on the economic indicators that suggest only one thing - the European economy is facing a new recession. Such a situation cannot bypass Bulgaria and it is transferred here exactly through exporting companies. Some of them have already announced that the paces of their revenue growth in the beginning of the year were slower”, as stated by the authors of this ranking. Methodology The companies are divided by the size of their market capitalisation (more than 25 million for the large ones and below, for the small ones); thereafter, they were ranked on the basis of weight criteria - revenue, revenue growth, market capitalisation, liquidity and profit margin. The one with the lowest final grade ranks first.

All consolidated financial statements of the public companies for 2011 submitted by the end of March 2012 were taken into account. The statements have not been audited and for those who have nothing to consolidate and have significant deviations from the audited data, the last ones have been taken into account. The number of transactions and the market capitalisation for years 2010 and 2011 have been provided by the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

Top 5 among the large companies 1. Sopharma 2. Chimimport 3. Monbat 4. Neochim 5. Stara Planina Hold Top 5 among the small companies 1. Oil and Gas Exploration and Production 2. Solarpro Holding 3. Agria Group Holding 4. Elchim Iskra 5. Faserles Source: capital.bg