"There are eight Hungarian companies among the fastest growing EMEA high-tech firms, Deloitte said in its latest Technology Fast 500 EMEA index published on Tuesday. Hungary gave only two firms to the list in 2006 and 2005 and only one in the preceding two years.The UK has the most ranked companies with 81 of the 500, followed by France with 68. Israeli firms take first, second and third place.
Average five-year revenue growth for all companies is 1443 percent, the highest since the awards began.
The survey of Fast 500 CEOs reveals that 79.5% of this year's CEOs were extremely or very confident of managing the same growth rates over the coming two years.
The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA ranks public and private technology companies from 21 countries in EMEA (Europe/Middle-East/Africa) with a minimum revenue of EUR 50,000 in year one.
Deloitte claims it is “the most objective industry-ranking standard to focus on the technology sector".
Key trends observed in this year's Fast 500 are:
-The software sector continues to dominate the ranking, making up 200 of the 500 companies.
-However, as evidenced by the exceptional performance of Israel, tech-acceleration nations are emerging. Proportional to population numbers, technology firms in Norway, Israel, Sweden, Ireland, Finland and Holland are in a class of their own when it comes to technology acceleration, with high-growth technology firms between 2 and 5 times more common than anywhere else in the region.
-While the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA shows a consistent increase in average growth rates year on year, this is in stark contrast to that of the North American Fast 500, where average growth rates have been falling since 2001.
-Fast 500 North America shows average five year revenue growth rates falling from a peek of 6,772% in 2002 to 1,823% in 2007.
“The current financial turbulence and economic uncertainty does not appear to have made the front-runners in the technology race in EMEA either slow their pace or lose their focus," said Igal Brightman, Global Managing Partner of Deloitte's Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Industry group.
“These businesses are successfully managing exponential growth and, in particular, finding the right people in the right places to drive that growth."
“This is the seventh year of the ranking in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the more data we have the more interesting trends emerge," said Eric Morgain, Deloitte's Partner in charge of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA.
“The UK led again this year in terms of overall numbers, closely followed by France. But we are also seeing a club of technology acceleration nations emerging, which includes Israel, Sweeden, Ireland and the Netherlands - where successful technology businesses are many times more likely to succeed."
Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
28.11.2007