Sweden tops in Nordic foreign investment

Global investment frenzy continues to spread. Last year capital investments rose by 38 percent and Sweden stands well with competitors, ranking today as the twelfth biggest investment country, according to UNCTAD's annual report.

Swedish companies ranks well in the development. For instance, it has acted aggressively to become an interesting country for Chinese and Indian investments, says Torbjörn Fredriksson, one of the main authors of the report. During 2006, global investments rose to 8.5 billion Swedish crowns of which 170 billion crowns was placed in Sweden. Old Mutual's acquisition of Swedish insurance company Skandia at the tune of 40 billion crowns rocketed Sweden's position among the top foreign investment countries. The Old Mutual-Skandia affair was the 17th largest deal in 2006.

Sweden is clearly the biggest investment country in the whole Nordic. The overall value of investments in Denmark, Norway and Finland remains 30 percent lower than foreign investments in Sweden. UNCTAD's annual reports shows that China and India are on a vigorous march as foreign investors, followed by United States, Great Britain and France. It is the third year in a row that direct global investments have risen in the world. The reason is the expanding world economy. Corporate profits have increased resulting in higher share prices which in turn raised the value of mergers and acquisitions.

The only dark clouds in the investment horizon that create some uncertainty is how credit worries that shook the world's financial system is going to affect investment enthusiasm." It is partly because no one knows exactly how extensive the credit situation in the USA is, and partly because we don't know how this will affect the investment flow. It will be felt most in mergers and acquisition. It will become harder to finance acquisitions of companies," says Torbjörn Fredriksson."
(Translated from DN Ekonomi, 17 Oct. 2007)