STUDY OF THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE FOR ROMANIAN LISTED COMPANIES BENEFICIARY OF NON-REPAYABLE EUROPEAN FUNDS

Our study investigates the differences in financial performance during 2011 and the first 3 quarters of 2012 for 36 Romanian companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange, divided in two groups: 11 companies beneficiary of non-repayable structural and cohesion European funds and 25 other non-beneficiary companies. We found that, on average, the beneficiary companies showed better debt-to-equity ratios, larger profit margin, higher return on equity and turnover growth, but, in the same time, they witness a lower profit growth and liquidity ratio. We explain this behavior by the long term advantages and also by the short term management difficulties of implementing European funded investment projects.