Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2015

Distinguishing FDI by Type

FDI can be subset by certain characteristics which allows for the refinement of the qualitative analysis of FDI statistics. A distinction is often drawn between Greenfield FDI and other types of FDI transactions (mergers & acquisitions, extension of capital and financial restructuring). The rationale behind drawing this distinction is that the transfer of ownership (merger & acquisition investment) is deemed to have a different economic impact than the purchase or sale of new shares (greenfield investment), the extension of capital or financial restructuring.

Greenfield FDI can be described as ex nihilo investment: the establishment of a subsidiary “out of nothing”. International standards for the compilation of Greenfield FDI statistics are not yet available; these results should be considered a proxy for Greenfield FDI. These results were obtained by dividing FDI according to the date on which it was birthed for CSO Balance of Payments data collection. The value of Greenfield FDI, for the purposes of this publication, is defined as the portion of new FDI arising as a result of the birth of these subsidiaries for CSO data collection in that same year of birth. 

The Value of Greenfield FDI in Ireland

Table 6.1 displays the number of Greenfield FDI projects which have been recorded by the CSO. It shows some variation in the number of entities captured by the CSO for new data collection for Balance of Payments data collection, with the largest number captured in 2012 and considerably less captured in 2015.