Luxembourg, 04/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - A study published on 29 March by Eurostat shows that, although there are few foreign-owned companies in the EU they have a considerable economic impact, for industrial and services activities. Furthermore, the United States appears as the largest "foreign owner".
The study, which covers the year 1997 and a small number of Member States (Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent Spain), reveals that foreign-owned companies represent less than 1% of the total number of companies in each country, but that they have a greater economic impact than their limited number might otherwise suggest. Thus, in 1997, they accounted for 12.4% of total employment in industrial and services activities in Sweden and 11.6% in the United Kingdom, and create 14.9% and 16.6% of the total added value of these countries respectively. Companies under foreign control have a relatively higher impact in the industrial sector than in the services sector, but in both their economic impact is linked to the size of these companies. In 1997, the average size of foreign-owned companies in the industrial sector was, to cite just one example, 23 times larger in the United Kingdom than that of national companies. The same trend was true for the services sector where companies under foreign control were 12-15 times larger than national companies in the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The Eurostat report indicates, moreover, that the United States is the largest foreign owner in terms of added value and employment. This is particularly true in the United Kingdom where the American companies generated, in 1997, 48% of the added value of foreign companies and 44% of employment, as well as in the Netherlands (44% and 31%). In the countries studied, Switzerland appears four times in the ranking of the top 5 owners while Japan only appears once. Within the Union, the most important foreign owners were the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. It should be noted that, among service sectors, foreign ownership was the highest within the distributive trades sector in all reporting Member States, except in the UK.