Romanian Times reported that OMV has retained its title as Austria's biggest company despite massive losses. OMV suffered a 30% drop in turnover in 2009.

Magazine Trend said that the internationally operating oil and gas producer OMV kept its top spot of the biggest 500 companies of 2009 list.

Strabag SE was found to be the second most powerful Austrian firm in 2009. The construction company headed by Mr Hans Peter Haselsteiner, which mainly operates in Central and Eastern Europe, also came second in the previous year's listing.

Steel producer voestalpine dropped one place and is now in sixth. Mr Wolfgang Eder CEO of voestalpine labeled 2009-10 as voestalpine's most difficult business year since World War Two.

Rewe International, which belongs to the German Rewe Group, came third. The firm, which is headquartered in Wiener Neudorf, runs Austrian supermarket chains Billa, Merkur and Penny Markt, but also operates in eight other CEE countries. Its turnover soared by 6% to EUR 11.55 billion year on year in 2009.

Rewe's main rival Spar Austria reached fifth place, with Porsche Austria in sixth.

(Sourced from www.romaniantimes.at)