Our ranking is based on company revenues.

As much as possible, we have used consolidated reported revenue for the fiscal year ending in 2007. The information has been sourced from publicly available databases, data from the companies themselves and estimates based on our research.

In a few instances where information about the revenue for fiscal year 2007 was not available we have used the reported 2006 revenue as a proxy for 2007.

In the case of Ukrainian companies we have used revenue data provided by ”Delo”.

The revenue of subsidiaries of large groups has been reported as part of the consolidated revenue and shown separately for those subsidiaries.

The ranking is based on revenues reported by a particular legal entity operating in Central and Ekstern Europe.

We have not presented the total revenues of various companies owned by one investor (e.g. Volkswagen, Mittal, Lukoil etc.) as they do not represent single legal entity based in the region and due to lack of data. However, because of the importance of these organizations’ in the regional economy, we have provided an analysis of the estimated pro forma consolidated revenue of these groups in a separate ranking of top foreign investors.

Revenue has been calculated in Euro at the relevant average exchange rates for 2005, 2006 and 2007. Companies from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova and Kosovo, which are relatively small, have not been included in the list.

For the purposes of this analysis, our ranking includes companies in Central and Eastern European countries with the exception of Russia and Belarus. In both cases we have not been able to find reliable data, which could be used in the ranking.

In addition, the size of the Russian economy and some of its major companies means that the industry and country comparison is difficult.

The ranking groups companies by industry and country. We also display the ranking of the largest Central European companies by market capitalization as of 31st December 2007 and a list of the major foreign investors in the region.

The latter list is made up of the revenues of those of the Top 500 companies which are controlled by particular investors. We have ranked banks and insurance companies by total assets and gross written premium, respectively. The gross written premium of insurance companies includes both premiums from life and non-life operations, despite the fact that in certain areas, these companies operate as a separate legal entities.