Ahmed Hassan, Deloitte: WE provide more and more solution-based advisory

Consumer and retail sector, financial sector, real estate and energy are among Romania-based most attractive areas for US investors, according to Ahmed Hassan, country managing partner at Deloitte Romania and Moldova, one of the Big Four consultancy firms, a statement uttered in the recently published Country Focus series of The Diplomat-Bucharest.

2014-08-18 12:56:05

Although Romania is making progress in terms of economic competitiveness, improving its rating from below investment grade to stable, it still has a lot of catching up in order to further attract big investments. The stability of its business environment and combating of corruption are the main US requirements.

"When looking for investment opportunities, US investors seek transparency, ethics and simplicity of doing business," Hassan tells The Diplomat-Bucharest. "US investors will not come for small opportunities, but rather for the big tickets, meaning major privatisation or big investment intent. That is why Romania needs to improve what we call the red tape area where corruption breeds. Moreover, the unpredictable laws and fiscal environment are also concerns. Otherwise, Romanian macro-indicators are looking very good and the market seems to be ready for investments," he adds.

With US clients such as Exxon, P&G, General Motors, Microsoft and Honeywell, Deloitte Romania ended 2013 with 134 million RON (30.45 million Euro) in revenues, representing a 11.2 per cent increase compared to 2012. If three years ago not all its business units grew according to expectations, today the company sees positive results on all of them. For instance, the Tax&Legal division grew by 20 per cent, the Audit segment by six per cent. In 2014, the managing director plans to increase the overall business by more than eight per cent. "My philosophy is that I do not follow necessarily a percentage growth as a strategy, but more about what I can bring to the clients as solutions to their businesses," says Hassan. "We have started to provide more and more solution-based advisory, the engine of our growth. The whole team understands that just selling existing products is no longer what will bring the change."

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