Multinationals: An Irish Perspective Business In Ireland 2017

Multinationals: An Irish Perspective

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Multinationals play an important role in the economies of many countries. Increasingly, multinationals create a physical presence in several countries around the world in order to maximise their global earnings.

This chapter presents statistics on the activities of the affiliates of Irish multinationals abroad and the contribution made by the affiliates of Foreign multinationals in Ireland. See Tables 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 at the end of this section for more detail on the data in the graphs.

Key statistics

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Figure 7.1 Employment in Irish affiliates abroad, 2017

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In terms of employment in Irish multinationals abroad by continent, Europe, Asia and America each accounted for approximately a third of the total
Employment in the remaining regions amounted to 2.5%

Figure 7.2 Irish MNEs abroad and foreign MNEs in Ireland, 2017

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‌In 2017, Irish multinationals employed almost 974,000 persons in Foreign affiliates and generated Turnover of €228.4 billion
By contrast, Foreign multinationals employed just over 325,600 persons in affiliates in Ireland and generated Turnover of €386.3 billion

Irish-owned Multinationals abroad

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In 2017, Irish multinationals abroad had turnover in excess of €228bn
The US and UK affiliates accounted for 57.1% of all turnover

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Turnover
United States	38.8
United Kingdom	18.3
France	3.9
Germany	3.9
Other countries	35.0

There were over 973,000 persons employed in Irish multinationals abroad
More than one third (34.7%) of all employment in Irish multinationals abroad was based in the US and the UK

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Persons engaged
United States	23.5
United Kingdom	11.2
China	3.8
Germany	3
Other countries	58.5

	2017
United States	228433
United Kingdom	108950
China	37203
Germany	29183
Mexico	26084
France	25541
Spain	20451
Italy	19374
Netherlands	17359
Canada	15782

Along with the US and UK, there were significant numbers of persons engaged in Irish owned foreign affiliates across the globe, with 37,203 employees in China and over 29,000 in Germany

	2017
United States	88.5
United Kingdom	41.9
France	9
Germany	9
Netherlands	6.7
Canada	5.5
Italy	4
Spain	3.9
China	3.9
Poland	2.5

Irish owned enterprises in the US and the UK generated turnover of €88.5 billion and €41.9 billion respectively
Irish owned enterprises in France and Germany also generated a significant amount of turnover in 2017; each country reported turnover of almost €9 billion

Services was the dominant sector for employment in Irish affiliates abroad in 2017 accounting for 63.1% of total persons engaged
Manufacturing affiliates accounted for 19.8% of employment compared with 16.7% for Distribution
Other Industrial and Construction sectors employed 0.3% and 0.2% respectively

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Persons engaged
Manufacturing	19.8
Other Industrial	0.3
Construction	0.2
Distribution	16.7
Services	63.1

Most turnover for Irish affiliates abroad came from the Services sector (44.0%) and the Distribution sector (31.1%)
The Manufacturing sector also accounted for a significant share of total turnover (22.8%)

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Turnover
Manufacturing	22.8
Other Industrial	1.7
Construction	0.4
Distribution	31.1
Services	44

	Turnover
Services	44
Distribution	31.1
Manufacturing	22.8
Other Industrial	1.7
Construction	0.4

The Services sector had the largest share of turnover generated by Irish affiliates abroad at 44%
The Distribution sector accounted for over 31% of turnover, while Manufacturing accounted for almost 23%
The rest of the sectoral activities combined were responsible for just over 2% of total turnover

7.1 Turnover and number of persons engaged in Irish-owned foreign affiliates, 2017

7.2 Turnover and number of persons engaged in Irish-owned foreign affiliates by sector, 2017

Foreign-owned Multinationals in Ireland

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The Financial and Insurance sector is excluded from this section. Accordingly, all the measures below relate to the non-financial business economy only (which encompasses the broad sectors of Industry, Services, Distribution and Construction).

	2016	2017
Number of enterprises	1.1	1.2
Persons engaged	20.7	21.4
Turnover	56.6	57.9
GVA	60	62.2

Foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 62.2% of total GVA in the Irish non-financial business economy, compared to 60.0% in 2016. These enterprises accounted for 57.9% of total Turnover in 2017
Despite such large contributions to GVA and Turnover, foreign-owned enterprises accounted for just 1.2% of the total number of enterprises in the Irish business economy
Foreign-owned enterprises accounted for over one fifth (21.4%) of persons engaged in the Irish business economy

	2016	2017
Number of enterprises	2.9	3
Persons engaged	38.2	40.6
Turnover	84.4	80.8
GVA	86.8	87.3

The Industry sector in particular was dominated by foreign-owned enterprises in 2017, with 80.8% of Turnover and 87.3% of GVA, the bulk of which came from enterprises that were owned outside the EU
There were 558 foreign owned enterprises in the Industrial sector, which represented just 3.0% of all enterprises in the Industrial sector but accounted for 40.6% of persons engaged

	2016	2017
Number of enterprises	1.7	1.8
Persons engaged	23.5	24.2
Turnover	35.9	40.2
GVA	35.9	39.3

In the Distribution sector, which includes Retail & Wholesale Trade, just 892 or 1.8% of all enterprises were foreign-owned
These foreign-owned enterprises employed nearly one quarter, 24.2%, of all persons engaged in this sector and contributed almost 40% of total GVA

	2016	2017
Number of enterprises	1	1.1
Persons engaged	16.7	17.3
Turnover	49.2	54
GVA	37.4	42.3

Just 1.1% of all Services enterprises in Ireland were foreign owned but they employed almost one sixth (17.3%) of persons engaged in the sector
These foreign owned enterprises in the Services sector accounted for over half (54.0%) of total Turnover and 42.3% of total GVA
EU owned services enterprises accounted for 51.8% of all foreign owned enterprises and 44.3% of employees, while 86.3% of Turnover and 81.7% of GVA came from enterprises owned outside the EU

	Gross Value Added
Hungary	51.4
Slovakia	48.1
Luxembourg	44.6
Romania	44
Czech Republic	43.3
Ireland	43
Latvia	32.9
Bulgaria	32.9
Poland	30.6
Netherlands	29.1
United Kingdom	28
Lithuania	27.8
Austria	27.8
Slovenia	27.3
Sweden	26.9
Belgium	25.5
EU28	24.9
Estonia	24.8
Germany	24.8
Portugal	24
Croatia	23.4
Finland	23.2
Malta	22.8
Spain	22.2
Denmark	21.5
France	16.3
Greece	16.3
Italy	15.8
Cyprus	13.4

Ireland ranked 6th in the EU28 for Gross Value Added contributions from Foreign-owned enterprises to the overall non-financial economy in 2016 (43.0% of total GVA)
This compares to the EU28 average of 24.9% for 2016
Hungary ranked highest with 51.4% of total GVA
Other high-ranking countries included Slovakia (48.1%), Luxembourg (44.6%) and Romania (44.0%) respectively

7.3 Structural business statistics by sector and nationality of ownership, 2017

Table 7.1 Turnover and number of persons engaged in Irish-owned foreign affiliates, 2017
	Turnover	Persons engaged
	€ millions	Number
United States	88,524	228,433
United Kingdom	41,894	108,950
Other countries	98,002	636,365
All countries	228,420	973,748

Table 7.2 Turnover and number of persons engaged in Irish-owned foreign affiliates by sector, 2017
	Turnover	Persons engaged
	€ millions	Number
Manufacturing	52,134	192,520
Other industrial	3,933	3,253
Construction	902	1,654
Distribution	70,979	162,262
Services	100,472	614,059
All sectors	228,420	973,748

Table 7.3 Structural business statistics by sector and nationality of ownership, 2017
	Irish-owned	Foreign-owned affiliates			All enterprises
		Owned by EU multinationals	Owned by non-EU multinationals	Total
Number of enterprises
Industry¹	18,259	299	259	558	18,817
Construction	57,105	106	44	150	57,255
Distribution	47,706	564	328	892	48,598
Services (excl. Financials)	156,822	908	844	1,752	158,574
All sectors	279,892	1,877	1,475	3,352	283,244
Number of persons engaged
Industry¹	144,276	31,268	67,422	98,690	242,966
Construction	133,414	2,598	1,227	3,825	137,239
Distribution	278,631	58,279	30,495	88,774	367,405
Services (excl. Financials)	640,238	59,448	74,886	134,334	774,572
All sectors	1,196,559	151,593	174,030	325,623	1,522,182
Turnover (€millions)
Industry¹	45,700	15,677	177,223	192,900	238,601
Construction	23,962	609	298	907	24,869
Distribution	111,709	30,809	44,159	74,968	186,677
Services (excl. Financials)	100,062	16,129	101,361	117,490	217,552
All sectors	281,433	63,224	323,041	386,265	667,699
GVA (€millions)
Industry¹	12,933	5,627	83,332	88,959	101,892
Construction	8,917	195	115	310	9,227
Distribution	13,588	4,372	4,435	8,807	22,394
Services (excl. Financials)	43,600	5,865	26,141	32,006	75,607
All sectors	79,038	16,059	114,023	130,082	209,120
Source: CSO Structural Business surveys and Business Demography data.
¹Industry covers NACE Rev.2 (05-39) of which Manufacturing (10-33), Construction (41-43), Distribution (45-47) and Services covers NACE Rev. 2 H to N (excluding K) and includes NACE divisions R92, R93, S95, S96.

Business In Ireland 2017