Member Article

Yorkshire in top 3 outside London for international investment

According to figures released by Experian, Yorkshire (along the North West and South West) experienced the most inward investment deals by foreign companies this year.

The total value of these inward investment deals is £429 million.

Businesses in Leeds were the most common target for foreign investment with nine deals worth £196 million, followed by Sheffield (five deals worth £8 million) and Huddersfield (five transactions worth £225 million)

Firms in Yorkshire saw a three-fold increase in the number of deals from January to September 2013, from 10 in 2012 to 30 deals so far this year.

This was also mirrored by a large increase in the value of deals, up from £27 million to £425 million. After the USA (11), countries of origin for Yorkshire deals included Germany (four) and France (three).

As before, manufacturing (11), wholesale, retail and repair (seven) and professional and business activities (six) were the investment industries of choice.

Overall overseas investment in the first three quarters of 2013 is slightly down on the same period last year (407 deals compared to 451), but experienced a significant uplift in Q3 with 157 deals compared to 107 in Q2 of this year.

To date, the most interest has come from the USA, followed by France and Germany. US companies were involved in 152 of the 407 deals this year, followed by France with 28 deals and Germany closely behind with 27 deals.

Manufacturing was by far the biggest sector for inward investment, with over 141 manufacturing deals taking place in the UK involving overseas firms.

Max Firth, UK Managing Director for Experian’€™s Business Information Services division, said: The fact that British firms are increasingly attracting investment from foreign investors reveals the quality of businesses in this country.

“It’s also encouraging to see the manufacturing sector being a focus for so much of this attention after a tough few years. €œFor firms seeking international investment, keeping abreast of the overseas deals market within the region would be useful.

“Overseas investors may also take a credit report into consideration when selecting a UK company to trade with so maintaining a healthy report could strengthen a firm’s position within an international network.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .