Friday, January 24, 2014

Type of international investment

 International investment as discussed in chapter 1 is divided into two categories: foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and foreign direct investment (FDI).The distinction between the two rests on the question of control: Does the investor seek an active management role in the firm of merely a return from a passive investment?

   Foreign portfolio investment represent passive holding of securities such as foreign stocks bonds ,or other financial assets , none of which entails active management or control of the securities” issuer by the investor .Modern finance theory suggests that foreign portfolio investments will be motivated by attempts to seek an attractive rate of return as well as the risk reduction that can come from geographically diversifying one’s investment portfolio .Sophisticated money managers in new York ,London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and other financial centers are well aware of the advantages of international design securities ,bring  their total holdings of such securities to $6.6 trillion. Foreign official and private investors purchased $$890 billion worth of us. corporate, federal state, and local securities, raising their total holding of such securities to $8.6 trillion.

   Foreign direct investment (FDI) is acquisition of foreign asset for the purpose of controlling for them .U.S. government statisticians define FDI as” ownership or control of 10 percent or more of an enterprise” voting securities or the equivalent interest in an unincorporated business”. FDI may take many forms, including purchase of existing assets in a foreign country, new investment of property, plant, and equipment, and participation in a joint venture with a local partner. Perhaps the most historically significant FDI in the United States was the $24 that Dutch explore Peter Minuet paid local Native Americans Manhattan Island. The result: New York City, one of the world’s leading financial and commercial centrals.
Figure 6.7
Stock of Foreign Direct Investment,
by Recipient (in billions of dollars)
 

The Growth of foreign Direct Investment.
The growth of foreign direct investment during the past 30 years has been er phenomenal .As figure 6.7 indicates, in 1967the total stock (or cumulative value) of FDI received by countries worldwide was slightly over $100 billion. Worldwide FDI as of 2006 topped $12.5 trillion. This stunning growth in FDI –and its acceleration in the 1990s-reflects the globalization of the world’s economy. As you might expect, most FDI comes from developed Countries. Surprisingly, most FDI also goes to deleted countries .We discuss later in the chapter reason for this explosive growth in FDI.

Foreign Direct Investment and the United States.

We can gain additional insights into FDI by looking at individual countries .Consider the stock of FDI in the united states, which totaled $2.1 trillion (measured at historical cost) at the end of 2007( see table 6.4[a]).The United Kingdom was the most important source of this FDI ,accounting for $410.80 billion ,or 20 percent of total. The countries listed by name in table 6.4( a) account for 87percent of total FDI in the United States.
   The stock of FDI U.S residents in foreign countries totaled $ 2.8 trillion at the end of 2007(see table 6.4[b]).Most of this FDI was in other developed countries, particularly the united kingdom ($398.8 billion) and the Netherland ($370.2 billion).The countries listed by name in table 6.4 (b) account for 68 percent of total FDI from the united states.
   Looking at table 6.4, you may wonder why Bermuda, the Bahamas and other small Caribbean island are so important. The serve as offshore financial centers, which we will discuss in chapter 8.Many U.S companies set up finance subsidiaries in such centers to take advantage of low taxes and business-friendly regulations similarly, many financial services companies from other countries establish such subsidiaries as the legal owner of their U.S operation.
   During the past decade outward FDI has remained larger than inward FDI for the United States (see figure 6.8), but both categories have tripled in size. Although inward and outward flows of FDI are not perfectly matched, the pattern is clear: Most FDI is made by and destined for the most prosperous countries. In the next section we discuss how this pattern suggests the crucial role MNCs play in FDI.

 TABLE 6.4 Patterns of FDI for the United States,end of 2007 ( billions of dollars)

a. Sources of FDI in United States

United Kingdom                                                                                                    410.8
Japan                                                                                                                      233.1
Canada                                                                                                                   213.2
Netherlands                                                                                                            209.4
Germany                                                                                                                202.6
France                                                                                                                    168.6
Switzerland                                                                                                            155.7
Luxembourg                                                                                                          134.3
Australia                                                                                                                  49.1
Bermuda,The Bahamas, and other Caribbean island                                              38.7
Other European countries                                                                                        75.9
Total                                                                                                                    2092.9

b. Destination of FDI from the United States

United Kingdom                                                                                                     398.8
Nertherlands                                                                                                           370.2
Canada                                                                                                                   257.1
 Bermuda,The Bahamas, and other Caribbean islands                                          243.3
Switzerland                                                                                                            127.7
Luxembourg                                                                                                           113.6
Germany                                                                                                                 107.9
Japan                                                                                                                       101.6
Mexico                                                                                                                      91.7
Ireland                                                                                                                       87.0
Other European countries                                                                                        364.5
All other countries                                                                                                   546.5
Total                                                                                                                       2791.9
Source : Suvey of Current Business , July 2008,pp.33,35.

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