The ICEG European Center in Budapest, Hungary, and the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment (VCC), a joint center of the Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, are releasing the results of a survey on outward investors today. The survey is part of a long-term study of the rapid global expansion of multinational enterprises from emerging markets. The results released today focus on Hungarian multinationals in particular. The present survey, conducted in 2011, covers the period 2008-2010. The ICEG European Center in Budapest, Hungary, and the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment (VCC), a joint center of the Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, are releasing the results of a survey on outward investors today.1 The survey is part of a long-term study of the rapid global expansion of multinational enterprises from emerging markets. The results released today focus on Hungarian multinationals in particular. The present survey, conducted in 2011, covers the period 2008-2010.
The report includes a ranking of Hungarian multinationals based on their foreign assets (see table 1 below). The 20 multinationals ranked held more than USD 19 billion in foreign assets in 2010. The top-ranked firm, MOL Group (including TVK, majority-owned by MOL Group), accounted for almost USD 18 billion, or more than 91%, of these assets. The top 20 companies together registered foreign sales of more than USD 18 billion in 2010 and employed more than 40,000 workers abroad (table 2 below). In 2010, Hungary was the 23rd outward investor in terms of FDI stock among emerging markets and the 27th largest in terms of outward FDI flows, well below the BRIC countries, but a large investor among the new Member States of the European Union. Outward investment by Hungarian companies went primarily into oil and gas exploration and production (mining and quarrying) and pharmaceuticals. Other investment areas included electronics, construction, transport, energy supply, building materials, plastics production, food products, medical precision instruments, logistics and IT, and other services. The 20 companies on the list have 172 affiliates in 37 countries, with a strong concentration in Europe, mainly in Central and Western Europe (122 affiliates). These are mainly located in neighboring or geographically close countries, such as Romania (28 affiliates), Slovakia (14), Ukraine (11), Germany (9), Poland (7), Bulgaria (6) and the Czech Republic (5). See annex table 2 and annex figure 2 for details.