Foreign-owned Businesses In The Uk Non-financial Business Economy

11th July 2022

A report from the Office for National Statistics.

Annual estimates of the number of foreign-owned businesses, turnover and approximate gross value added (aGVA) in the UK non-financial economy for 2020 and revised estimates for 2019, from the Annual Business Survey (ABS).

1.Main Points
In 2020, 1.4% of the 2.5 million businesses operating in the UK non-financial business economy were foreign-owned (34,233 businesses); foreign-owned businesses contributed 28.0% of approximate gross value added (aGVA) in 2020

The number of foreign-owned businesses increased by 5.6% and the largest proportional increase was for Asian-owned businesses (13.2%).

The industry with the highest number of foreign-owned businesses (7,842) operated in wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (2.0% of businesses in this section); these businesses generated £61.5 billion in aGVA.

The industry with the largest proportion of foreign-owned businesses was mining and quarrying, where 11.4% of businesses were foreign owned.

In 2020, the largest proportion of foreign-owned businesses (54.8%) were European owned.

The value of aGVA contribution of foreign-owned businesses fell by 9.0% in 2020 (£33.1 billion), while UK-owned business aGVA contribution also fell by 9.0%.

The sector that experienced the largest fall in aGVA contribution by foreign-owned businesses was manufacturing (£10.7 billion).

2.Contribution of foreign‐owned businesses between 2015 and 2020
There was continued growth in the number of foreign-owned businesses in the UK non-financial business economy (41.8%) from 2015 to 2020, with a 5.6% single year increase in 2020. However, approximate gross value added (aGVA) from foreign-owned businesses fell by 9.0% in 2020, in line with the 9.0% fall in UK-owned aGVA. The largest fall occurred for European-owned businesses (9.7%). Europe continued to contribute the largest share of foreign-owned aGVA (46.1%) and had the highest proportion of foreign-owned businesses by count in the UK non-financial business economy (54.8%). Foreign owned businesses from all continents experienced a fall in aGVA in 2020, except Oceania and Antarctica, which saw aGVA grow by 3.6%.

Read the full report with more links at -
https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/articles/annualbusinesssurvey/2020