European rivals gain on the UK
The UK still leads but Ireland and Spain are among the European investment destinations that posted big gains in 2018, reports fDi Intelligence.
The number of greenfield FDI projects into Europe in 2018 declined by 2% while capital investment increased 30% to $216.2bn, according to a report from fDi Intelligence.
Capital investment into western Europe increased by 27% in 2018 to $130.8bn, The fDi Report 2019 revealed. Project numbers declined by 6% to 4385. FDI into emerging Europe increased by 35%, with 1673 projects announced.
The UK was the top destination for FDI in Europe with a total of 1278 projects in 2018, gaining an overall market share of 21% and a 19% increase on the number of projects in 2017. Capital investment also increased to $35bn but this amount is still significantly lower than the $51.3bn in capital investment recorded in 2015, before the vote to leave the EU. In 2015, the average size of an FDI project in the UK was $44.9m, but this has decreased to $27.4m in 2018.
The number of greenfield FDI projects into Ireland grew 8% in 2018, alongside a 32% increase in capital investment to $10.5bn.
Elsewhere in western Europe, FDI into Spain increased 39% by number of projects to 551, reflecting a 52% increase in capital investment. Spain increased its market share of FDI projects from 6% in 2017 to 9% in 2018.
Meanwhile, Finland witnessed a 6% increase in project numbers to 132, resulting in an equal level of capital investment as in 2017. Lithuania welcomed 80 projects in 2018, an increase by 54%, from $1.2bn in 2017 to $1.9bn in 2018. Estonia strengthened its standing as a destination market, seeing a 501% increase in capital investment from $147m in 2017 to $886m in 2018. This was aided by Netherlands-based renewable energy company CEG and Stork, a Fluor company, establishing a partnership to set up a $419m biocoal production facility in Estonia.
A star performer in recent years, Poland experienced a drop of 6% in project numbers in 2018 but remains ahead of the emerging Europe FDI league tables and sits at number five Europe-wide for projects, behind only the UK, France, Germany and Spain.
Germany remained the largest outbound investor from Europe, generating 1348 projects valued at $74.2bn. Among the sizeable outward investments from Germany, car manufacturer BMW plans to invest $1.1bn to build a new factory close to Debrecen, Hungary. The facility will be capable of producing 150,000 cars per year, and is to serve the European market.
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