Are Foreign Companies Withdrawing Their Profits from Romania? No, Their Profits Are Lower

The NBR, which receives data from every company, explains the decline in reinvested profits through dividends calculated on profits from previous periods and lower current profits, according to Leonardo Badea, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Romania (NBR), in an article published by Agerpres.

Dividends paid by major companies confirm the NBR's explanation:

OMV Petrom, BRD and BCR sent money to their parent companies in 2026, while UniCredit Bank Romania proposed sending dividends, with the total amount only around 125 million euros higher than last year, while reinvested profits fell by around 1.2 billion euros in the first half of the year.

The causes of the decline in foreign investment are explained by BURSA in the article „Why foreign investment in Romania has fallen: taxes and expensive energy”.

Dividends paid to parent companies in 2026 compared with 2025

OMV Petrom, 51.16% controlled by the Austrian OMV group, paid dividends of 3.6 billion lei in June 2026, consisting of a base dividend of 0.0466 lei per share and a special dividend of 0.0112 lei per share, according to the proposal approved by shareholders and the payment announcement.

In the first half of 2025, OMV Petrom had paid dividends of 2.75 billion lei, while the special dividend for 2024 was paid only in December 2025, according to the press. The OMV group's share increased in the first half of the year from around 1.41 billion lei to around 1.84 billion lei, mainly because the special dividend was moved from December to June.

BRD, 60.2% controlled by Societe Generale, paid dividends of 749.3 million lei in June 2026, according to the shareholders' meeting resolutions, compared with 737.4 million lei in May 2025, according to the 2025 draft resolution.

Societe Generale's share increased by around 7 million lei.

BCR, controlled by the Erste Group, paid a dividend of 0.0979 lei per share from 15 May 2026, according to the BCR announcement to shareholders, amounting to around 1.6 billion lei, according to BURSA's calculation based on the number of shares in BCR's articles of association.

In 2025, BCR had paid ordinary dividends of around 1.3 billion lei, according to media reports. The increase is around 0.3 billion lei.

Raiffeisen Bank Romania, controlled by Raiffeisen Bank International, paid dividends of 873.6 million lei from 5 May 2026, half of its 2025 profit of 1.745 billion lei, according to the shareholders' meeting resolutions. In 2024, the bank had paid dividends of 860.4 million lei, according to the 2024 resolutions, almost the same amount. The amount paid in 2025 is not public.

UniCredit Bank Romania proposed dividends of 634.4 million lei to shareholders from its 2025 profit, according to the shareholders' meeting notice, compared with 728.4 million lei from its 2024 profit, as reported by the press. UniCredit Bank Romania's dividend therefore decreases by around 94 million lei.

In total, OMV Petrom, BRD and BCR sent money to their parent companies, while UniCredit Bank Romania proposed sending around 0.65 billion lei more than last year, or around 125 million euros. The 125 million euros represents around one-tenth of the 1.2 billion euro decline in reinvested profits.

Banks' profits fell in 2026

BCR Group's net profit fell by 18% in the first half of the year, ING Bank Romania's gross profit by 29.2%, and UniCredit Bank Romania's net profit by 5.6%, according to press reports; the banks attribute the decline to the additional turnover tax, while BURSA explains why the state increased this tax in the article „Bolojan's fiscal policy had serious justifications: higher taxes reduced the deficit and the risk of a downgrade, but came at the cost of foreign investment”. However, the dividends paid in 2026 were calculated on the higher profits from 2025, and when dividends exceed current profits, reinvested profits become negative.

Two explanations not confirmed by the figures

The first unconfirmed explanation is the increase in dividend tax from 10% to 16%, provided for by Law No. 141/2025 for dividends distributed from 1 January 2026. Dividends paid to a parent company in the European Union that has held at least 10% of the shares for at least one year are exempt from tax in Romania, according to the BRD announcement regarding dividend payments. OMV, Societe Generale, Erste, Raiffeisen Bank International and UniCredit meet these conditions.

The second unconfirmed explanation is that foreign investment in 2025 was boosted by several large acquisitions that are not being repeated in 2026. The largest transactions in 2025 were sales between foreign investors: the Regina Maria healthcare network passed from the MidEuropa Partners fund to the Finnish Mehiläinen group, while the P3 logistics portfolio passed to the CTP group, BURSA reported. When a foreign investor buys from another foreign investor, no new capital enters Romania, and foreign direct investment does not increase.

Why the decline is 82% over six months and 62.5% over eight months

Companies pay dividends mainly in the second quarter. Reinvested profits were negative in the second quarter in both 2024, at 723 million euros, and 2025, at 390 million euros, according to Leonardo Badea. In the first half of 2026, new capital and reinvested profits totalled 465 million euros, with the press citing NBR data. Since reinvested profits were negative by 1.124 billion euros, the new capital brought in during the first half of the year amounted to around 1.59 billion euros, according to BURSA's calculation. Over the first eight months, new capital and reinvested profits totalled 2.22 billion euros, according to the NBR, BURSA reported. Thus, in July and August, new capital and reinvested profits totalled around 1.75 billion euros, after dividend payments had ended.

What the public data do not show

Dividends paid by ING Bank Romania are not public. The German Schwarz Group, owner of Lidl and Kaufland, does not publish its results for Romania. Nor is the balance of loans received by foreign-owned companies from their parent companies clear: the press has reported figures of 49.7 billion euros at the end of May and 54.1 billion euros at the end of August, without specifying whether the two figures measure the same thing.