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Romania’s most valuable brands revealed for the first time

29 August 2017
This article is more than 6 years old.

· Dacia is the most valuable Romanian brand, worth €1.2bn

· At €206m, Dedeman is the most valuable brand with 100% Romanian shareholding

· Retail generated the most brand value among sectors, with 10 brands worth €796m

· Success of new brands developed by entrepreneurs, neglect of state-owned brands

· Valued at €115m, Ursus Breweries has the most valuable local multi-brand portfolio

Every year, leading valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance values the brands of thousands of the world’s biggest companies. Romania’s 50 most valuable brands and 10 most valuable brand portfolios are featured in the debut Brand Finance Romania 50 report.

View the full Brand Finance Romania 50 report here

The automotive brand Dacia is the most valuable Romanian brand of 2017, and the only one so far worth over €1bn. This comes hardly as a surprise – Dacia is an established, popular car brand – virtually the only car available for purchase in Romania until 1989. The takeover by Renault in 1999 prompted a revival of the brand. Nowadays, Dacia is Renault’s second brand by sales with presence in 34 countries and over 90% of the local production sold abroad.

Looking at brands by industry, apart from the particular automotive category of one, the retail sector has generated the most brand value, with a total of 10 brands worth €796m. The most valuable among them are the e-commerce star eMAG and the leading DIY chain Dedeman.

Today Romania’s second most valuable brand at €361m, eMAG was started up by three young entrepreneurs in 2001 in an apartment block - the local equivalent of the Silicon Valley’s „garage”. Fuelled by investment from the global heavyweight Naspers, which bought a majority stake in the company in 2012, eMAG has grown exponentially, becoming by far the largest e-commerce retailer in the country. “Romania’s Amazon” is staying truthful to its entrepreneurial spirit by expanding to other markets in Eastern Europe and offering new product categories in response to customer demand.

Third in the table, Dedeman, on the other hand, has excelled in the brick and mortar model. At €206m, it is also the most valuable brand with 100% Romanian shareholding. The brand has capitalised on the trends of DIY, home improvement, construction materials and cash & carry, and extended its national network relentlessly – even during the recession period – surpassing strong international players and ultimately reaching market leadership.

Digi (RCS&RDS) is 5th with a brand value of €150m. It is also the most valuable telecom brand – with significant market shares in fixed and mobile telephony, internet and data, pay and cable TV in Romania and Hungary, as well as in Italy and Spain, where it caters to large Romanian communities. The company has grown both organically and through M&A activity, and kept a relatively low profile until this year’s IPO at the Bucharest Stock Exchange. It remains to be seen whether the new transparency requirements would strengthen or weaken the brand over the coming years.

Worth €112m and placing 7th in the league table, Bitdefender is Romania’s most valuable technology brand. The antivirus software brand has gone from strength to strength, fuelled by the increasing need for data protection in the era of digital revolution. Regularly topping the global antivirus software rankings, Bitdefender solutions cater to hundreds of millions of users worldwide – with a huge upswing potential in Europe and the US.

Putting one’s name on a business is putting one’s personal reputation at stake, but at the same time, it is a mark of trust for customers and partners. Named after the famous tennis player and coach, Țiriac, which Brand Finance analysed as a single brand across all its associated businesses, has a brand value of €52m, securing 15th place in the league table. The seasoned businessman has been active in various sectors ranging from financial services to automotive industries, gradually creating a business holding that promises to develop his name into a strong and enduring brand.

New brands like eMAG, Dedeman, Digi, Bitdefender or Țiriac – created and developed by entrepreneurs over the past 28 years – make up more than half of the Brand Finance Romania 50 league table, generating over €1.5bn in brand value. Some of Romania’s most valuable brands, however, carry a long history, often spanning more than a century, and remain under state-ownership. Unfortunately, many of those brands, important from the point of view of public interest, like Tarom or CFR, are mostly neglected by the state, despite their considerable potential. However, there are notable exceptions, such as the successful CEC Bank brand, valued at €56m. It is a perfect example of how able leadership and management could turn around a declining state-owned business and place it amongst the strongest players.

Bank brands in general fare strongly in the Brand Finance Romania 50 study, generating €424m as a sector, and claiming three places among the top 10. Placing 6th, Banca Transilvania is the most valuable Romanian banking brand – valued at €130m, while BCR and BRD, worth €111m and €102m respectively, are ranked 8th and 9th. Founded by savvy entrepreneurs in the heart of Transylvania in 1993, the eponym bank pursued its more established competitors relentlessly, especially over the past decade, and today it is the second largest bank in the country in terms of assets. Its brand value success can be attributed to its convincing positioning that appeals to the most dynamic customer segments.

David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, commented: “Valuing brands taps into the hidden value that lies within them. The Brand Finance Romania 50 report is a first step to understanding more about Romanian brands and using that knowledge to benefit businesses. As the importance of South-Eastern Europe to the global economy grows, it is high time to follow local brands more closely.”

Mihai Bogdan, Managing Director of Brand Finance Romania, commented: “Brands are sometimes neglected because, in line with current accounting rules, intangible assets are generally not reflected in financial statements. To overcome this, the most astute economic players track their intangible value by means of periodic valuations and assessments. The time has come for Romanian brands to follow suit”.

Next to analysing individual brands, Brand Finance Romania 50 also lists the 10 most valuable portfolios of brands, calculated for those businesses that deploy more than one brand on the market. These portfolios encompass over 40 well-known local brands, most valuable of which are also ranked individually in the main top 50 league table.

Valued at €115m, Ursus Breweries has the most valuable local multi-brand portfolio on the Romanian market. Providing one out of every three beers enjoyed in Romania, it takes special pride in owning Ursus, the well-known 140-year old premium beer brand.

View the league table of Romania’s 50 most valuable brands here

ENDS

Notes to Editors

For more definitions of key terms, methodology and more stories, please consult the Brand Finance Romania 50 report document.

Brand values in the report are given in EUR. Please consult the league table for brand values in USD and for conversions into RON by hovering over the ‘i’ button to select currency.

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Brand Finance

About Brand Finance

Brand Finance is the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. Bridging the gap between marketing and finance for more than 25 years, Brand Finance evaluates the strength of brands and quantifies their financial value to help organizations of all kinds make strategic decisions.

Headquartered in London, Brand Finance has offices in over 20 countries, offering services on all continents. Every year, Brand Finance conducts more than 5,000 brand valuations, supported by original market research, and publishes over 100 reports which rank brands across all sectors and countries.

Brand Finance also operates the Global Brand Equity Monitor, conducting original market research annually on over 5,000 brands, surveying more than 150,000 respondents across 38 countries and 31 industry sectors. Combining perceptual data from the Global Brand Equity Monitor with data from its valuation database enables Brand Finance to arm brand leaders with the data and analytics they need to enhance brand and business value.

Brand Finance is a regulated accountancy firm, leading the standardization of the brand valuation industry. Brand Finance was the first to be certified by independent auditors as compliant with both ISO 10668 and ISO 20671 and has received the official endorsement of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) in the United States.

Definition of Brand

Brand is defined as a marketing-related intangible asset including, but not limited to, names, terms, signs, symbols, logos, and designs, intended to identify goods, services, or entities, creating distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic benefits.

Brand Strength

Brand strength is the efficacy of a brand’s performance on intangible measures relative to its competitors. Brand Finance evaluates brand strength in a process compliant with ISO 20671, looking at Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and the impact of those on Business Performance. The data used is derived from Brand Finance’s proprietary market research programme and from publicly available sources.

Each brand is assigned a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score out of 100, which feeds into the brand value calculation. Based on the score, each brand is assigned a corresponding Brand Rating up to AAA+ in a format similar to a credit rating.

Brand Valuation Approach

Brand Finance calculates the values of brands in its rankings using the Royalty Relief approach – a brand valuation method compliant with the industry standards set in ISO 10668. It involves estimating the likely future revenues that are attributable to a brand by calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for its use, to arrive at a ‘brand value’ understood as a net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market.

The steps in this process are as follows:

1 Calculate brand strength using a balanced scorecard of metrics assessing Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and Business Performance. Brand strength is expressed as a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score on a scale of 0 to 100.

2 Determine royalty range for each industry, reflecting the importance of brand to purchasing decisions. In luxury, the maximum percentage is high, while in extractive industry, where goods are often commoditised, it is lower. This is done by reviewing comparable licensing agreements sourced from Brand Finance’s extensive database.

3 Calculate royalty rate. The BSI score is applied to the royalty range to arrive at a royalty rate. For example, if the royalty range in a sector is 0-5% and a brand has a BSI score of 80 out of 100, then an appropriate royalty rate for the use of this brand in the given sector will be 4%.

4 Determine brand-specific revenues by estimating a proportion of parent company revenues attributable to a brand.

5 Determine forecast revenues using a function of historic revenues, equity analyst forecasts, and economic growth rates.

6 Apply the royalty rate to the forecast revenues to derive brand revenues.

7 Discount post-tax brand revenues to a net present value which equals the brand value.

Disclaimer

Brand Finance has produced this study with an independent and unbiased analysis. The values derived and opinions presented in this study are based on publicly available information and certain assumptions that Brand Finance used where such data was deficient or unclear. Brand Finance accepts no responsibility and will not be liable in the event that the publicly available information relied upon is subsequently found to be inaccurate. The opinions and financial analysis expressed in the study are not to be construed as providing investment or business advice. Brand Finance does not intend the study to be relied upon for any reason and excludes all liability to any body, government, or organisation.

The data presented in this study form part of Brand Finance's proprietary database, are provided for the benefit of the media, and are not to be used in part or in full for any commercial or technical purpose without written permission from Brand Finance.

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