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EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, Wednesday, July 13, 2016

BEA 16—37

New Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, 2014 and 2015

Expenditures by foreign direct investors to acquire, establish, or expand U.S. businesses totaled $420.7 billion in 2015, an increase of 68 percent from 2014, when expenditures were $250.6 billion. In 2015, as in 2014, the majority of the expenditures were to acquire existing businesses. In 2015, expenditures for acquisitions were $408.1 billion. Expenditures to establish new U.S. businesses were $11.2 billion, and expenditures to expand existing foreign-owned businesses were $1.4 billion. Planned total expenditures, which include both actual and planned future expenditures, totaled $439.2 billion.

New Investment by Foreign Direct Investors by Type, 1994-2014

Newly Available Statistics

In conjunction with today’s release, BEA is introducing new statistics for 2014 and 2015 on the activities of newly acquired, established, or expanded U.S. affiliates by state, country, and industry. These new statistics supplement the statistics on expenditures for new investment and include current and planned employment and balance sheet and income statement items, specifically sales, net income, assets, liabilities, and total owner’s equity, for the affiliates. The statistics offer more detail, including state-level detail, than similar statistics BEA produced until 2008. The new statistics are available with the statistics on expenditures for new investment on BEA’s web site in the interactive tables.

New investment expenditures include expenditures incurred by foreign direct investors and by existing U.S. affiliates of foreign direct investors. The portion of new investment expenditures provided by foreign direct investors is included in BEA’s statistics on foreign direct investment transactions. These expenditures contribute to the foreign direct investment position in the United States, which represents the accumulated total value of foreign direct investment, totaling $3.1 trillion (on a historical-cost basis) at yearend 2015. However, not all of the transactions that contribute to the foreign direct investment position are included in the statistics on new investment expenditures. The new investment data exclude disinvestment flows and other transactions between foreign direct investors and their U.S. affiliates that do not contribute to the acquisition, establishment, or expansion of a U.S. business.

Expenditures by industry, country, and state

Expenditures for new investment in manufacturing were $281.4 billion in 2015. As in 2014, manufacturing accounted for more than half of total new investment expenditures. Within manufacturing, expenditures were largest in chemicals, mostly in pharmaceuticals and medicines. There were also large expenditures in finance and insurance, in real estate and rental and leasing, and in professional, scientific, and technical services.

By country of ultimate beneficial owner (UBO), the largest source country was Ireland, at $176.5 billion. There were also substantial expenditures from Canada and Germany. Of the eight largest countries in terms of foreign direct investment position in the United States—United Kingdom, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, and France—six are also among the top eight countries for new foreign direct investment.

By U.S. state, the largest expenditures, $119.0 billion, or 28 percent of the total, were for investments in California.

Greenfield expenditures

Greenfield investment expenditures—expenditures to either establish a new U.S. business or to expand an existing foreign-owned U.S. business—totaled $12.6 billion in 2015. In 2014, greenfield expenditures were $14.8 billion. Total planned greenfield expenditures for investment initiated in 2015, which include both first-year expenditures and planned spending in other years, totaled $31.2 billion.

By industry, 2015 greenfield expenditures were largest in real estate and rental and leasing, at $6.2 billion, accounting for about half of total first-year greenfield expenditures. By U.S. state, New York attracted the most expenditures for greenfield investment, $4.0 billion. There were also large greenfield investments in Pennsylvania and California.

Employment by newly acquired, established, or expanded foreign-owned businesses

In 2015, employment at newly acquired, established, or expanded foreign-owned businesses in the United States was 422,200. (Statistics on employment at expanded business only include employment at the expanded portion of the business.) Total planned employment, which includes current employment of acquired enterprises, the planned employment of newly established business enterprises once they are fully operating, and the planned employment associated with new facilities, was 461,600. Of these totals, the current employment of acquired enterprises was 418,000.

By industry, manufacturing accounted for the largest number of 2015 employees, at 139,500. Employment was also substantial in administration, support, and waste management, and in retail trade. By country of UBO, the largest number of employees was accounted for by Canada and France. By U.S. state, the largest numbers of employees were in California and Arizona.

Revisions

This release updates preliminary data on expenditures for new foreign direct investment in the United States for 2014 that were released in November 2015.

Revisions to 2014 Expenditures for New Foreign Direct Investment in the United States

[Millions of dollars]
	Preliminary	Revised
First-year expenditures
Total	241,261	250,581
U.S. businesses acquired	224,688	235,799
U.S. businesses established	13,822	12,473
U.S. businesses expanded	2,751	2,309
Planned total expenditures
Total	263,858	275,767
U.S. businesses acquired	224,688	235,799
U.S. businesses established	31,345	33,516
U.S. businesses expanded	7,825	6,453

Full Release & Tables (PDF)

Tables Only (Excel)

Release Highlights (PDF)

Interactive Tables

Technical

Thomas Anderson

(301) 278-9117

Thomas.Anderson@bea.gov

Technical

Amanda Budny

(301) 278-9154

Amanda.Budny@bea.gov

Media

Jeannine Aversa

(301) 278-9003

Jeannine.Aversa@bea.gov

Resources

Additional resources available at www.bea.gov:

Additional information on new foreign direct investment in the United States will be published next month in the Survey of Current Business.
BEA's interactive data application – including more data on the activities of the newly acquired, established, or expanded U.S. affiliates. These additional data include balance sheet and income statement items, specifically sales, net income, assets, liabilities, and total owner’s equity for the affiliates.
BEA's email subscription service
Twitter @BEA_News (or twitter.com/BEA_news)
BEA’s Data Application Programming Interface (API): /API/signup/index.cfm
BEA’s news release schedule: /newsreleases/2016rd.htm

Additional Information

The statistics of new investment by foreign direct investors are based on data reported in the Survey of New Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (BE-13) conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The survey covers U.S. business enterprises that were acquired, established, or expanded by foreign direct investors. Information on the filing requirements for the survey may be found at /surveys/respondent_be13.htm.

A U.S. business enterprise is categorized as “acquired” if a foreign entity acquires a 10 percent or more voting interest in an incorporated U.S. business enterprise, or an equivalent interest of an unincorporated U.S. business enterprise, either directly or indirectly through an existing U.S. affiliate. A U.S. affiliate is a foreign-owned U.S. business enterprise. A U.S. business enterprise is categorized as “established” if a foreign entity, or an existing U.S. affiliate of a foreign entity, establishes a new legal entity in the United States in which the foreign entity owns 10 percent or more of the new business enterprise’s voting interest, or an equivalent interest if unincorporated. An existing U.S. affiliate is categorized as “expanded” if it expands its operations to include a new facility where business is conducted.

BEA reinstated the Survey of New Foreign Direct Investment in the United States in 2014 after ending the series after survey year 2008 due to budget cuts. The reinstated survey now includes expansions in an effort to better capture greenfield investments. Greenfield investment includes establishments of new companies by foreign investors and expansions of already existing companies. Because expansions were not included in the series that ended in 2008, the current series starting with 2014 is not directly comparable to the previous series ending in 2008.

The statistics of new foreign direct investment include transactions resulting from corporate inversions. A corporate inversion occurs when a domestic corporation that is currently the ultimate owner of its worldwide operations takes steps to become a subsidiary of a foreign corporation. A U.S. corporation can initiate an inversion either by creating a foreign corporation to be its new parent or by merging with an existing foreign corporation and ceding control. BEA’s direct investment surveys do not collect information on whether a U.S. corporation became foreign owned as a result of a corporate inversion; hence these transactions cannot be separately identified in the statistics based on the survey data alone. Using publicly available information, such as commercial databases and press reports, BEA estimates that newly inverted U.S. corporations account for approximately 20 percent of first-year expenditures for acquisitions in 2015.

Following an inversion, the foreign parent of the inverted U.S. corporation may acquire additional U.S. businesses – either directly, or through the inverted U.S. corporation, or through other subsidiaries. The U.S. targets of these second round acquisitions might also be considered inverted U.S. corporations, but these transactions cannot be readily disentangled from other changes in the consolidated U.S. operations of the foreign parent. Therefore BEA has not attempted to identify the impact of these second round inversions on the statistics.

The transactions associated with corporate inversions are also included in other BEA direct investment statistics. For additional information on how corporate inversions affect BEA’s economic accounts, see Jessica M. Hanson, Howard I. Krakower, Raymond J. Mataloni Jr., and Kate L.S. Pinard, “The Effects of Corporate Inversions on the International and National Economic Accounts” Survey of Current Business 95 (February 2015).

Holding companies established by foreign direct investors solely for the purpose of acquiring or establishing at least one other U.S. business enterprise are excluded from the statistics on new foreign direct investment. A holding company is a company whose primary activity is holding the securities or financial assets of other companies. However, acquisitions or establishments that are undertaken by a foreign-owned U.S. holding company are included in the statistics. In addition, the statistics on new investments do not cover the acquisition of additional equity by a foreign parent in an existing U.S. affiliate, the acquisition of an existing U.S. affiliate by one foreign investor from another or the expansion of an existing U.S. affiliate when no new operation or facilities are established. Sales of parts or all of the U.S. affiliate or other disinvestments are not subtracted from new investments.