Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS)

More specifically, the 9 057 foreign controlled enterprises resident in Austria accounted for

• 3% of the total number of Austrian profit-oriented enterprises (NACE Rev.2 sections B-N plus division S95),
• 19% of the respective employment,
• almost one third (31%) of total turnover,
• nearly one quarter (23%) of total value added (at factor costs),
• and more than half (52%) of respective R&D expenditures.

They were mainly controlled by group heads resident in Germany (41% of the units), Switzerland (12%), Italy (6%), the United States and the Netherlands (5% each), and the UK (4%).

On the other hand, Austrian enterprises in 2009 concentrated their activities abroad in the “new” member states of the EU, namely in

• Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic, where they employed about 10% of the total employment in Austrian affiliates abroad each (or more than 90 000 people per country),
• Slovakia and Poland with about 5% of foreign employment, or 40.000 jobs each.

The highest numbers of Austrian affiliate units and employed persons abroad, however, were located in Germany: 14% of the units and 11% of employed persons.

On the statistics

A main feature of national economies is the integration of their economic units with the rest of the world. This can be measured, amongst others, by the companies’ cross-border investments, be it by domestic enterprises’ investments abroad or vice versa. This phenomenon is tightly connected with the issue of (economic) globalisation and the out-sourcing and dislocation of productive resources (offshoring).

In 2007, a European Regulation on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates was adopted (Regulation (EC) No. 716/2007 of the European Parliament and the Council of 20 June 2007 on Community statistics on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates, published in OJ 2007 L 171/17), in order to establish a harmonized data collection system on this issue. In Austria, implementation of this European act has been enforced by a national regulation, the so-called “Auslandsunternehmenseinheitenstatistik-Verordnung” (Verordnung des Bundesministers für Wirtschaft und Arbeit über die Statistik der Struktur und Tätigkeit von Auslandsunternehmenseinheiten, BGBl. II Nr. 345/2008).

In recent years, parts of the FATS statistics were produced by the Austrian Central Bank (OeNB). Starting with the reporting year of 2007, the first obligatory reporting year according to the European Regulation on FATS statistics, production of Austrian FATS data has been done by Statistics Austria, in close cooperation with the National Bank. This holds true for both, the “inward” and “outward” direction of the statistics:

• Inward FATS: enterprises resident in Austria which are under the control of an institutional unit resident abroad;
• Outward FATS: enterprises resident abroad which are under the control of an institutional unit resident in Austria.

Control over a corporation here is defined as the ability to determine general corporate policy by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. A single institutional unit (another corporation, a household or a government unit) secures control over a corporation by owning more than half the voting shares or otherwise controlling more than half the shareholders’ voting power. In addition, government secures control over a corporation as a result of special legislation decree or regulation which empowers the government to determine corporate policy or to appoint the directors. 
Foreign control is given when the controlling institutional unit is located in a different country that the institutional unit controlled by it. 
Within this concept, direct as well as indirect control structures are to be recognized. FATS statistics use the concept of the 'ultimate controlling institutional unit' (UCI). The UCI is the institutional unit (or natural person), proceeding up a chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit. The land of control is the country in which the UCI has its residence.

In compliance with the European Regulation, the national Regulation provides for delivery of results of the FATS statistics within 20 months after the end of the reference year. This period respects the fact that Austrian FATS statistics, for reasons of reducing the respondents’ burden, mainly relies on the availability of other statistics. These are the annual Structural Business Statistics (SBS), the bi-annual data collection on research and development (R&D), and the annual Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) statistics. These data are combined by using crucial information from the national statistical Business Register.

Data dissemination thus is effected by end of August of the second year after the end of each reference year, starting with August 2009; only a few weeks after availability of the national SBS and R&D data.

More information

For more information on international data please consult the Eurostat website on statistics on foreign-controlled enterprises or Eurostat’s “Statistics Explained” website.

For more detailed information on the Austrian data please consult the tables and report (under Further information) below or our German language website.

Tables, reports, press releases, etc.