Half of sales of Norwegian businesses are going abroad
When Norwegian companies are sold, foreign interests buy around half of them. Foreign-owned companies account for one-third of sales in Norway.
Sweden, Denmark, the U.K., the U.S.A., and Germany are the countries that buy up many of the Norwegian companies, while China shows remarkably little enthusiasm to buy Norwegian.
According to Dagens Næringsliv newspaper, foreign companies have pumped more than the normal amount of capital into Norway so far this year.
‘2017 figures so far show a clear increase, and foreigners have now broken the 50% limit. But these are numbers for one month, and so are too thin to draw conclusions’, said partner in the Wiersholm legal firm, Harald Hellebust, that leads the statistical study on transactions.
‘Over time, the percentages have ranged between 40% and 50%.
Chief Economist, Elisabeth Holvik of Sparebank 1 Group is very concerned that Norway fails to retain Norwegian ownership within the country.
‘Foreign interests are behind every fourth workplace in Norway, and account for a third of turnover. Moving companies out of Norway may lead to workplaces, turnover and skills disappearing.
The danger is that an increasing number of ideas, product developments and innovation processes will be exported. Then good jobs disappear, and the entire community is weakened,’ wrote Holvik in a newspaper article on Thursday.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
