ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes a range of interesting data with regard to Southern multinationals and drawing inference from them. It gives an overview of Southern multinationals in Europe. It compares the extent, sectors, business activities, and corporate parents of European subsidiaries from various Southern multinationals by analyzing in detail the firm-level investments made in Europe. Southern multinationals are a new and powerful force in global competition and are challenging the incumbency of much older global companies from the developed world. The data come from two sources: FDI Markets database that monitors cross-border investments, Orbis database that contains comprehensive financial and ownership information on companies worldwide. The chapter illustrates the sectoral distribution of investments in western and central and eastern Europe, respectively. Production activities represent a mere 13.8 percent of all Southern greenfield investments in the region. The global economic and financial crisis that hit the EU the hardest was another incentive for investment activities.
