REGIONAL CSR RATING SHOWS A LACK OF TRANSPARENCY ON THE ROMANIAN CSR MARKET

11 May 2009, Bucharest - Braun & Partners Network published results of CSR 24/7 rating for four countries of the Central-Eastern European region today. The research methodology evaluating CSR performance and communication was applied for top Romanian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Polish companies by revenue. For Romania, Braun & Partners used the first 25 companies from "Top 100 most valuable companies in Romania" by Ziarul Financiar. Regional CSR rating shows leading position of Hungarian and Polish companies, as well as general lack of communication about responsible corporate practices.

The regional CSR 24/7 Top100 list published by Braun & Partners Network contains Top 20 companies by revenue, including the three largest banks and two largest insurance institutions from Romania, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria.

CSR 24/7 is a CSR rating developed by Braun & Partners to access the CSR performance of companies based on publicly available information accessible to all stakeholders. Rating methodology is based on Accountability standards, GRI indicators, and triple bottom line principles and good practices. Methodology is based on 7 domains including transparency and communication; corporate governance; stakeholder relations; environmental responsibility; economic responsibility; society; human resources.

The "CSR 24/7 CEE-100 Composite Index" has a value of 6 (25%) for 2009. The Index measures performance on the regional level, and includes results of the Top20 companies from the four rated countries.

Results show the Romanian (with an average company performance of 17%) and Bulgarian (15% company performance) companies are in the first phase of developing more socially and environmentally responsible operations, while the leading positions are occupied by Hungarian (33% company performance), and Polish companies (26% company performance). Romanian companies with 0% company performance are Arcelor Mittal Galati, British American Tobacco and Interbrands Marketing & Distribution.

In Romania, Petrom got the best result in the country and was ranked among the CEE-100 companies with a score of 48%. The best ranked company in Poland, Grupa Lotos, also an oil company, received a score of 60%. The first ranked company in the region, was the Hungarian telecommunication company, Magyar Telekom (subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom), with a score of 79%. In Bulgaria Asarel Medet (Materials sector) and Kozloduy (nuclear power plant) achieved highest score (29%).

On the 7 domains of the Rating, Romanian companies have the lowest scores at economic responsibility, human resources, society and stakeholder relations.

Romanian companies have a well developed commercial website, with almost none stakeholder engagement programs, no supply chain responsibilities and partial information regarding human resources. CSR reporting, under international standards GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) is still not embedded in the local CSR culture.

Out of the 7 sectors represented in the Top100 companies, telecommunication scored highest with an average score of 34 %, followed by financials and energy & utilities (26%). Overall regional results show weak performance in the domain of communication about responsible human resources practices (e.g. existence of non-typical employment forms, like part-time or flexible work time) and communication about cooperation with civil society (e.g. systematic corporate volunteering activities).

From the 100 companies 12 have published a CSR report - based on international reporting guidelines - in the last two years, while 22 corporate websites have an easy-to-access CSR or sustainability section.