BS_BS_BS_ and that's all...

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will have a full lending capacity of 500bn euros (£400bn; $650bn) by 2014. It will initially run alongside, and then eventually replace, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).  Europe's largest economy, Germany, will make the biggest contribution to the fund, about 27% of its total. The ESM, which is a new European Union agency, will be chaired by Jean-Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and chair of the Eurogroup.  The launch of the ESM "marks an historic milestone in shaping the future of monetary union", Mr Juncker said after the inaugural meeting of the Eurogroup of finance ministers that makes up the fund's board.

Countries will make their first payments towards the fund this week.   Earlier, the EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, said: "It provides the eurozone with a robust and permanent firewall and it provides us with a strong toolbox of effective and flexible instruments.  "Thinking of where we were two-and-a-half years ago when we had no instruments of crisis management, we had to create the Greek loan facility and the temporary European facility, we are moving forward and we are supplementing the economic and monetary union with one important building block," he said as he arrived at the meeting.

"Nobody is in party mood, but I am less pessimistic for the moment for the eurozone than in the spring."

The ECB is prohibited from directly purchasing bonds from governments

The ECB is prohibited from directly purchasing bonds from governments, and yet purchases on the bond markets are among the instruments at its disposal. It is permitted to make such purchases, but only for reasons of monetary policy, such preventing deflation, for example.

Bond purchases are a treatment with side effects. Falling interest rates on sovereign bonds reduce the cost of government borrowing. The question is whether these side effects are the real motivation behind the ECB decisions, while the arguments surrounding monetary policy are merely a pretext. In that case, the purchases would be little more than government financing in disguise.

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court could very well be of the same opinion. In its recent ruling on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the court did not fail to express its skepticism of the bond purchases. The court will address the legality of the bond purchases in upcoming proceedings.

Even then, however, the German court will likely refer the case onwards to the European Court of Justice, which will then be forced to decide whether the central bank is still acting within the bounds of its mandate. Both the ECB and the Bundesbank are already preparing for the legal battle and are reviewing the legal underpinnings of their respective positions.

"The ECB's argument that the bond purchases have to do with monetary policy is a pretext," says Jürgen Stark, the central bank's chief economist until the end of last year. "If the transmission mechanism of monetary policy is indeed disturbed, the ECB must intervene, irrespective of whether or not a country has subjected itself to a bailout program."

For Stark, who resigned in protest over the ECB's first bond-purchasing program, a red line has been crossed once again. "We are talking about the financing of governments here," he says. That, he points out, is in violation of European Union treaties. "The ECB is operating outside its mandate," he concludes....Academics share his assessment. "Common sense tells us that the ECB, with its purchasing program, is doing something completely different from expressing its concern over price stability," says Clemens Fuest, a professor of economics at the University of Oxford. According to Fuest, the ECB, following the example of the International Monetary Fund, is upgrading itself to a European bailout institution, which provides assistance based on certain conditions. It loses its independence as a result, says Fuest, because it can hardly refuse to provide assistance if its conditions are met. "The ECB has overstretched its mandate," Fuest believes.

Even supporters of the bond-purchasing program are critical of Draghi's approach. "The ECB should have continued to cite market failure as justification for its purchases," says Peter Bofinger, a monetary expert at the University of Würzburg in southern Germany and a member of the German Council of Economic Experts which advises the government on economic issues. "Then it could have intervened whenever it felt it was appropriate."

Mr Ayrault made clear the frustrations in the new socialist government over the handling of Greece by eurozone leaders, including the German chancellor, criticizing them for a “political weakness” and “a lack of vision”. I think Merkel is guilty of both of these things. She makes big, definitive statements, then undermines them a few days later. The people of Greece (and of Spain, Ireland and Portugal) deserve to know where they stand. The last Greek election was a farce because it was fought between a party that said it would simply cancel the debt with no consequences and a party that said it would renegotiate the bailout. Surely, if Merkel's "heart bleeds" for the Greeks, she's morally obliged to be straight with the Greek people. These are real people who can't make big life decisions - like whether to stay in Greece, whether to start a business, whether to start a family - because their country is in limbo. And it's in limbo because they don't know how much support they have from Germany. They don't have a clear way to stay in the EZ... they're just being strung along. Maybe it's good for her re-election chances - or her opinion poll numbers - but it's a lousy way to treat people.As things stand, we're still waiting for the Troika's official report into Greece's progress. Ayrault's comments add weight to the theory that Athens will be granted more support in the event that it has missed a significant chunk of its targets. We'll bring you reaction to Ayrault's comments as soon as possible.

Portugal is on the brink of abandoning its controversial plans to hike taxes on workers, in a victory for the huge numbers of people who protested a week ago. Pedro Passos Coelho, the Portuguese prime minister, is due to hold talks with employers and trade unions today to discuss alternative proposals. The public opposition to his plan to effectively slash workers' pay to fund lower taxes for companies appears to have forced Lisbon to change course.

QUATRO REICH = THE EUROPEAN UNION

EUROPEAN UNION —The European Central Bank should police the more than 6,000 banks in the euro zone, the European Union's executive said Friday, setting itself up for a clash with Germany, which wants to retain oversight over smaller lenders.  A proposal from the European Commission, to be finalized in coming days, will call for the central bank to set up an agency to take responsibility for supervision of all banks in the 17-nation currency area. The proposal follows a June decision from euro-zone leaders who wanted the supervisor created as a step to break the "vicious circle" between weak banks and governments with strained finances that have eroded confidence in the euro zone. The proposal, however, falls far short of creating the true "banking union" that the ECB and the commission have called for. It doesn't set up a regional fund for guaranteeing bank deposits or give powers to euro-zone agencies to wind down or restructure shaky banks and distribute losses among investors. The ECB would, however, be able to take operating licenses away from unstable lenders. The supervisory agency would be run by a separate decision-making panel at arm's length from the ECB, in an effort to prevent conflicts of interests with the central bank's main role of fighting inflation and to allow EU states that don't use the euro to join.   As the supervisor, the ECB would have to make sure banks build up sufficient capital levels to absorb economic and financial shocks—such as the real-estate crashes that triggered the Irish and Spanish problems or over-investments in shoddy products like the U.S. subprime mortgages that sank banks across Europe in 2008.The threat to withdraw a license would be the ECB's most potent enforcement tool. "That's the first crucial element: to empower the European supervisor with the right to withdraw the license," said Guntram Wolff, deputy director of Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. But other powers and responsibilities that are central to creating a unified banking framework for the euro zone would remain in national hands. Proposals that would force private investors to share the burden—for instance by converting debt into equity once a bank's capital falls below are certain level—aren't set to come into force until 2018. In a sign of possible movement, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, in an opinion piece in the Financial Times Friday, said the so-called bail-in mechanism should already come into force in 2015. (WSJ)

Potential foreign buyers of Spain's sovereign debt are likely to wait on the sidelines, however, until the efforts to clean up the financial sector start to show that banks are beginning to lend again to the euro zone's fourth-largest economy, said Jordi Fabregat, a finance professor at Esade Business School in Barcelona.  Additional clarity about European Union countries' willingness to help weaker brethren could also draw investors. Those outcomes could take months or years.

The latest measures show "Spain's determination to comply fully with the requirements" to get financial support from the EU, said European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.

The government hopes to limit its ownership in the bad bank to 50%, with private investors taking the rest. Finance Ministry officials indicated on Friday that they hoped to take a page from the Irish model for cleaning up the banking sector while avoiding its pitfalls. Many analysts say the Irish government paid too much for the banks' bad assets.

Spain wants to focus on the transfer of land and unfinished buildings that account for half of the €180 billion in problematic property assets held by banks. The government still has to specify potential purchase prices.  Bankia, the ailing lender that is a focal point of Spain's banking crisis, stands to shed a significant amount of toxic property. Spain's fourth-largest bank by assets, Bankia on Friday posted one of the largest losses on record for Spain's financial sector. It posted a loss of €4.45 billion after booking loan losses of about €6.57 billion. The bank said an extensive cleanup of its balance sheet conducted since the government took it over in May spawned total charges of about €7.5 billion. The losses were in line with projections disclosed by the company's management after the government's takeover, Bankia Chairman José Ignacio Goirigolzarri said.  Spain's bank bailout fund plans to inject capital immediately into Bankia before the first tranche of EU aid to the Spanish financial sector is made available, which likely will arrive by November. The bridge funding could be between €4 billion and €5 billion.

Reuters reports that The European Central Bank funding to Greek banks fell by €49.67bn in July from a month earlier to €23.99bn. Conversely, emergency liquidity assistance from the Greek central bank increased by €44.37bn to €106.31bn. Greek banks lost wholesale market access in the wake of the country's debt crisis, becoming dependant on the European Central Bank and the national central bank for liquidity. This is what Marc Ostwald of Monument Securities thought of those figures: The figures below mark a seismic shift away from the ECB to the Greek central bank, which could be interpreted as the ECB sensibly taking a hard line given the array of risks surrounding the new government's fiscal and structural reform policies, and indeed the Troika visit. ... But that sort of hard line is rather more suggestive of Herr Weidmann and the Bundesbank 'wearing the trousers' at the ECB than Signor Draghi, and for some Greece sceptics may even be constructed as a signal that Greece is one step closer to the exit, given the shift in risk (though we would be the first to admit that EUR 24 Bln is still a high level of risk, even if it has been reduced to what Signor Draghi might describe as an "adequate" level), and of course has no bearing on other ECB bond buying plans........

Germany's main opposition, the Social Democrats, have upped the ante, saying that Chancellor Angela Merkel must assume greater risks to avert a breakup of the single currency.

Bloomberg has a report on an interview the SPD floor leader, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, gave to the Rheinische Post newspaper.

He raised the pressure on Mrs Merkel to agree to more burden-sharing to stem the euro crisis, claiming that Mrs Merkel, while rejecting euro-region bond sales, fails to say that Germany is already exposed to losses from the debt crisis through the European Central Bank’s bond purchases:

The government should finally be honest about it to the people. If we want to prevent the breakup of the euro zone, it won’t be without risks for Germany.....I have been following the EU. crisis for the last three years and the Muppets in Brussels still have no idea what to do. It gives me no confidence at all in our leaders in Brussels. The numpties in Westminster are not too bright but they beat the nutters in Brussels and Strasbourg hands down.

From debt crisis to food crisis. The UN's food agency has warned today that the world could face a food crisis like that of 2007/08 if countries restruct exports on concerns about a drought-fuelled grain price rally. In its latest update, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said its food price index climbed 6pc last month, after three months of decline, driven by a surge in grain and sugar prices.

Anxieties over extreme hot and dry weather in the US Midwest sent corn and soybean prices to record highs last month, driving overall food prices higher.  Grain markets have also been boosted recently by speculation that Black Sea grain producers, particularly Russia, might impose export restrictions after a drought there hit crops.

The FAO's senior economist and grain analyst Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters:  There is an expectation that this time around we will not pursue bad policies and intervene in the market by restrictions, and if that doesn't happen we will not see such a serious situation as 2007/08. But if those policies get repeated, anything is possible.

The euro has completely broken down as a workable system and faces collapse with “incalculable economic losses and human suffering” unless there is a drastic change of course, according to a group of leading economists. Europe is “sleepwalking towards disaster”, according to the 17 experts, who warned that over the past few weeks “the situation in the debtor countries has deteriorated dramatically”. “The sense of a never ending crisis, with one domino falling after another, must be reversed. The last domino, Spain, is days away from a liquidity crisis,” said the economists. They include two members of Germany’s Council of Economic Experts and leading euro specialists at the London of School of Economics, all euro supporters. “This dramatic situation is the result of a eurozone system which, as currently constructed, is thoroughly broken. The cause is a systemic failure. It is the responsibility of all European nations that were parties to its flawed design, construction and implementation to contribute to a solution. Absent this collective response, the euro will disintegrate,” they added in a co-signed report for the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The warning came as contagion from Spain pushed Italy’s borrowing costs to danger levels, with two-year yields rocketing 40 basis points to more than 5pc. The Milan bourse tumbled 3pc, led by bank shares. Italian equities have been in freefall since it became clear two weeks ago that the EU’s June summit deal had failed to break the nexus between crippled banks and sovereign states.

The crisis is starting to ricochet back into Germany, where the PMI manufacturing index for July fell to its lowest since mid-2009. Doubts are emerging about the creditworthiness of the German state itself.

Well, I never thought I would admit it, but I am just another old “saddo” who writes all these comments with passion. This whole European saga goes on and on. We have seen our European leaders go through a wide spectrum of so-called solutions to the euro crisis, with tax hikes, austerity, unsustainable borrowing, a European central bank, and several other “solutions”, but the end result is always the same – the weaker countries get weaker, and even the almighty Germany now faces a downgrade by the credit rating agencies, because of their exposure to the debt crisis. There is only one solution to Europe’s problems, and that is to drop the idea of a single currency. In principle it was a great idea, but in practical terms it could never work. There is simply no way that each and everyone of the European economies with such widely different economy bases, from manufacturing to tourism, and many in between can hold the value of the euro to within the tight limits imposed. Almost all of Europe needs growth and increased tax revenue. This cannot be achieved against a background of high unemployment and businesses closing down. To create growth and tax revenue most of Europe needs to devalue its currency, but this is not possible whilst they have to adhere to the demands of the single currency. Despite several comments saying that the euro will survive, all I can say is they are wrong, the euro can't and never ever could work across the many different economies all across Europe. Make no mistake about it until the financial markets see that there is a credible solution to create growth and increased tax revenue across Europe as a whole, they will continue to remain in turmoil..... An association representing German banks has called for an extra year to implement tougher rules that would force them to hold more cash as a buffer against possible financial crises. The BVR group of private and public banks called for a delay until January 1, 2014 for the entry into force of the so-called Basel III regulations due to the "enormous technical restructuring and implementation work" needed. The planned implementation at the beginning of 2013 was "no longer realistic" said the group.

Germany gets to show its eurosceptic side

The preamble of the constitution makes Europe into a major premise of our constitution," says Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the head of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) group in the European Parliament. "Today's judges treat it like an annoying postscript. That's alarming."

Yes, and the actual central clauses of the constitution state that that all power derives from the people.

The european parliamentarians are particularly noisy about the court daring to interfere, at this time. They're probably still sore about the fact that the Court ruled that the European Parliament didn't meet "international democratic standards", and so wasn't a suitable receptacle for future transfer of sovereignty.

From memory, the international democratic standard they saw the european parliament failing had to do with one MEP representing 300,000 germans, and 50,000 maltese....Ah well. Germany gets to show its eurosceptic side, for a change.

German economic think-tank suggests mandatory loans for the rich.

Spiegel Online's actual headline is, that a German economic think-tank suggests mandatory loans for the rich.

I think, I have a better, voluntary idea: We see crisis countries struggling to pay interest rates of around 7pc.  We also see, that the ordinary private saver is struggling to find secure investment opportunities that at least pay better interest rates than the inflation rate.  There are enormous amounts of wealth in the hands of the common people, ordinary savers, in all European countries, especially in Germany. And they actually get not more than 3pc from the banks even on 5 or 10 years time deposits, if the want to have the full German deposit protection. Without time deposit, the interest rates are even meandering around 0.5 - 1 pc.
And from that low interest rates, they even have to pay around 28pc flat rate withholding tax (Abgeltungsteuer) on capital gains.  This should be put together, the need for lower interest rates for the crisis countries, and the demand of ordinary people for save deposits at reasonable interest rates.  And this, if possible, while avoiding the costs private Banks would add for their services.  So, if European Countries are guaranteeing States or Banks via ESM or other measures, why don't the just guarantee the deposits of common people on something like an European Savings Certificate, issued by the ECB or another new bank like European institution....If such an institution could offer guaranteed deposit with a net profit of around 3pc, ordinary European savers would pry this certificates out of their hands.  At German capital gains tax rate, that would mean an interest rate of around 4,05pc must be offered.  The institution would add their bureaucratic costs, and surely could offer the so collected money of the European people, at an interest rate of around 4.3pc or so, to the crisis countries.

That would help the crisis states to get some air, meaning time to reform, and the ordinary European people.  And it would even help Mr. Schaeuble's tax office, as Germany would collect more capital gains tax than today, because of the rising average interest rates. After the crisis, one could even think about keeping such a scheme, as a regular way to support private capital formation for ordinary people and financing European states.

Some late action from Fitch ...

Some late action from the ratings agencies. Fitch just cut its ratings on five major European banks -- Danske Bank of Denmark, Credit Agricole of France, Rabobank Group of the Netherlands, Banque Federative du credit Mutuel (BFCM) of France, and OP Pohjola Group of Finland. The move comes just a few hours after Credit Agricole announced €2.5bn of write-downs, and over 2,000 job cuts. Fitch explained that:While ratings for these banks are driven by idiosyncratic factors that determine how they rank in relation to each other and the wider rating universe, the downgrades reflect the broader phenomenon of stronger headwinds facing the banking industry as a whole. Exposure to troubled Eurozone countries through their subsidiaries was a direct consideration in the downgrades of Danske Bank and Credit Agricole. For the other banks, however, Fitch considers the Eurozone crisis is also having negative indirect consequences. Capital markets, in particular interbank markets, are not functioning effectively, and, along with more global factors, the crisis is driving economic slowdown. Here's the details of the downgrades:Banque Federative du Credit Mutuel: cut one notch to A+ from AA-;
Credit Agricole: cut one notch to A+ from AA-;
Danske Bank: cut one notch to A from A+;
OP Pohjola Group: cut one notch to A+ from AA-;
Rabobank Group: cut one notch to AA from AA+.

Markets fall as Germany fails to sell 35pc of the bonds it offers at auction

"The scale of the deterioration is surprising, but it seems that manufacturing is the sector probably most affected by the spillover from the financial tensions of the sovereign debt crisis, because it is highly cyclical," said Clemente de Lucia, economist at BNP Paribas.The 17 nations using the euro suffered the deepest fall in new industrial orders since December 2008, well below analysts' forecasts of a 2.5pc fall. The core nations of Germany, France, Italy and Spain all registered sharp contractions, the EU's statistics office said. The 6.4pc drop in orders of capital goods, which indicates investment in new machinery, shows factory managers are pulling back on expansion plans and hoarding cash as the debt crisis shatters business confidence. Falling export demand from Asia, fewer new orders, unemployment at 10pc and weak consumer confidence are combining to create a very difficult business environment. "This clearly indicates that we are now entering into a recession," said Peter Vanden Houte, economist at ING. "It is now very clear that this debt crisis has also affected the real economy, and the real economy is now going down." He said banks in peripheral eurozone countries are facing deposit withdrawals that could create a credit crunch, further slashing industrial orders. He said output in the fourth quarter will be "quite negative", as could the first quarter of 2012.

EC internal market and services - commissioners office

The European Commission says it wants to cut reliance on credit rating agencies, encourage more competition so there is less reliance on three major agencies - Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch - and reduce potential conflicts of interest. The Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) said it was concerned over forced rotation in a market dominated by three main players - S&P, Moody's Investor Service and Fitch Ratings. Martin O'Donovan, ACT's deputy director of policy, said that while companies would welcome more choice there were "huge practical difficulties" for rotation in the current "oligopolistic" market. Moody's has said that the plans to overhaul regulation of the sector will undermine the integrity of the whole European credit market. In a letter to European finance ministers including George Osborne, Michel Madelain, chief operating officer at Moody's, said the changes would undermine investors' confidence. He said allowing ESMA to "pre-approve" methodologies would "undermine credit rating agencies".

Resque - Europe's leaders are claiming a victory in the eurozone crisis after agreeing new deals that halve Greek debt and increase the firepower of the main bailout fund to around €1trn. Athens will be handed a new €100bn bailout early in the new year. The accord was reached in the early hours of Thursday after hours of fractious debate. At one stage talks broke down with holders of Greek debt but they ended up accepting a loss or "haircut" of 50% in converting their existing bonds into new loans. Investors are likely to welcome the breakthrough. Sharp gains are predicted for European markets on opening, with the FTSE 100 being called up 75 points and similar rises expected on the German and French stock markets. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, helped broker the deal in talks with the bankers that also included the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde. Merkel said the swap would take place in January. Sarkozy said private sector investors would refinance Greek's remaining debt at preferential rates while governments would find €30bn to go alongside €100bn from the private sectors. The French president and German chancellor both insisted that the €440bn bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), could find its firepower increased by four to five times. Since the fund has about €250bn left this could amount to €1trn – or US$1.4trn in Sarkozy's words. "We have reached an agreement which I believe lets us give a credible and ambitious and overall response to the Greek crisis," Sarkozy told reporters as the meeting broke on Thursday morning. "Because of the complexity of the issues at stake it took us a full night. But the results will be a source of huge relief worldwide."

Investors flooded into the safe arms of German bonds Monday, and European banks dialed back lending to their riskier peers, in a clear sign that fears of a destabilizing collapse in Greece persist despite fresh efforts over the weekend to shore up the troubled country's finances. The alarm sounded across Europe's beleaguered periphery. Early in the day, Italy paid a steep price to issue short-term treasury bills, borrowing for three months at the same rate the U.S. commands for 10 years. Bond yields in Spain and Portugal rose, too. Greek bonds were at panic levels: more than 20% for 10-year lending and 75% for two, though few buyers were willing to take the plunge. The big mistake by design (Germany is also in dire straights - it is NOT a strong economy since it has no assets or resources) -German government-bond yields meanwhile fell to record lows—1.72% for 10-year bonds—as investors sought the security of the Continent's strongest economy. The action was a disquieting response to a furious bid by Greece to raise fresh cash. Sunday, the country's finance minister outlined a plan to cover a €2 billion ($2.73 billion) shortfall with a special property tax—to be collected on property owners' electric bills, the better to be assured it is actually paid.

High-speed computerized trading, called high-frequency trading, is exacerbating the market's big swings. "The moves up and down are because of headlines. The volatility is so high I have no doubt it's due to role of high-frequency trading and algorithms that are exasperating price moves in the market, " says Sal Arnuk of Themis Trading. "Where see 3% and 5% moves — the moves would have been half that without high-frequency trading," Arnuk says. "You'd still have the moves up and down — that's the natural flow of the markets, but because of the outsized role of (exchange traded funds) and the increasing role of high frequency trading and how they prey on (investors), these moves become more outsized." Gold, considered a safe haven in troubled times, continued climbing to new highs, surging through $1,800 an ounce before closing at about $1,794. U.S. Treasuries also rallied, pushing yields down to 2.12%, near Tuesday's record 2.03% low.

Renewed worries about the Eurozone's finances and the state of its banks - particularly the French ones - have sent shares sharply lower again, all but wiping out Tuesday's Bernanke bounce on Wall Street. The US market, which invoked a rule to help prevent turbulence at the open, is down more than 242 points, having started down 75 points and fallen by more than 300 points at its worst so far. Last night the US market mounted a more than 400 rise after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke vowed to keep interest rates low until 2013, but it seems investors are now nervous about what that means for the state of the US economy, and how bad it could get. But attention also moved back to Europe, with news that President Sarkozy was locked in emergency talks with his ministers seeking ways to cut the country's deficit. That prompted rumours that the country was likely to be next to lose its Triple A rating, and also talk that one of its banks could be in trouble in the current financial turmoil, leading to hefty double digit share price falls at the likes of Societe Generale and BNP Paribas. In a note on the rating this week Citigroup said: We expect that France, with its high public debt and deficit, and popular resistance to cutbacks in its even by euro area standards extremely large welfare state is now likely to be the G7 country at the highest risk of losing its AAA rating. The markets appear to share this sentiment with French 10-year spreads over German Bunds reaching 16-years highs on Friday.

Romania and it's billionaires

The nine richest Romanian businessmen on the Stock Exchange have a fortune put at over half a billion euros on the Romanian market in more than 60 listed companies. Their fortune accounts for just 4,2% of the Stock Exchange capitalisation, which stands at 13 billion euros. However, none of them came to the Stock Exchange willingly, but took over companies that had already been listed, especially on the RASDAQ market, where companies were privatised via MEBO (Management and Employee Buyouts) over 10 years ago.

The nine billionaires are as follows: Cătălin Chelu (14 companies - 126 million RON), Cristescu brothers (8 companies - 648 million RON), Ştefan Vuza (7 companies - 281 million RON), Ilie Carabulea (6 companies - 267 million RON), Gheorghe Călburean (5 companies - 337 million RON), Ovidiu Tender (5 companies - 228 million RON), Constantin Boromiz (5 companies - 110 million RON), Cristian Burci (4 companies worth 80.4 million RON), Dan Adamescu (2 companies worth 295 million RON).

NOTE: 1 RON = 4.2 EURO