BULLETIN WITH 400 LEADING CROATIAN COMPANIES PRESENTED IN ZAGREB

( Editorial: --> 4733 ) ZAGREB, June 30 (Hina) - Financial results in Croatia in the past two years show that private entrepreneurship is falling behind state-owned companies which are improving their business. The most successful company in 1997 is the Croatian oil industry INA with the income of US $1.6 billion. INA, which also had the highest imports and exports, is followed by the pharmaceutical company Pliva with the income of US $94 million. These data were released by the Payment Operations Board (ZAP) in this year's special edition of the Economy Bulletin, "The Leading 400 - Business Profiles of Croatian Companies," which was presented in Zagreb on Tuesday. Along with the leading Croatian companies and their total income, profit and the number of employees, the Bulletin also presents most profitable companies in Croatian counties, as well as branch and import-export rank lists, the Bulletin's editor Mirjana Popovic said. According to the ZAP data, in the last year entrepreneurs operated positively and the overall income was 0.3% higher than the expenditures. Twenty leading profit makers reduced the number of employees in 1997 by 3.4 per cent. The highest monthly net wage - US $423 - was received by employees in state-owned companies, followed by US $351 for employees in mixed and US $299 in private companies. The data show that private companies which were established as such were more successful than companies which were privatised in the transformation process. For a fourth year in the row, small entrepreneurs are achieving better business results than big or medium-sized entrepreneurs, but in 1997 they had smaller profit and higher losses shares. The data on economic and in particular financial operations in the first five months in 1998 show that the basic operation tendencies from 1997 and previous years continue. The physical volume of industrial production was 6.3% higher than in the last year, the real growth of retail trade was 3.6% higher as were retail prices (5.7%) and wages (12.3%). The number of insolvent companies and institutions in May 1998 was 36% higher than in the same month of 1997. There are 25,064 insolvent companies while registered outstanding orders of transfer amount to about US $1.6 billion. Activities with most registered outstanding orders of transfer are - along with retail and wholesale trade - agriculture, food processing and drinks industry and construction. Entrepreneurs exported 6.5% less goods in the first four months of 1998 than in the same period in 1997. At the same time, imports decreased by 4.9%. (hina) jn rml 301801 MET jun 98