GERMANY IS TO THE MOST POPULAR LOCATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL INVESTS

 

China, USA and Germany are the top three countries that are both global investors and attractors of inward investment. For China, opportunity and risk go hand in hand. This is one of the key findings of the report by BDO Ambition Survey: Global opportunities, published on 20th September 2011.

The BDO Global Ambition Survey is now into its second year. The 2010 survey Report demonstrated that ambitious businesses were confident about cross-border expansion, despite continued economic challenge. This year BDO has once again asked CFOs from globally aspiring companies how they view their growth prospects overseas, as well as looked at what is changing and what, in the last year, has made a difference to their plans.

The BDO AMBITION SURVEY: GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES 2011 assesses where established international businesses see the greatest opportunities for further growth and which markets will have the biggest impact on their balance sheet in the next three years. And CFOs experienced in growing their companies overseas offer their advice on how to avoid the pitfalls and realise the opportunities available.

The survey’s basis is thought leadership research among globally aspiring companies with international expertise. The focus of the study is on identifying the strategies, critical success factors and challenges to cross-border growth encountered by those companies. It explores how globally ambitious midsized companies can maximise the business opportunities abroad and navigate the regulatory challenges of cross-border growth. This multi-country executive survey was designed by StrategyOne in close consultation with BDO and the research was conducted by an external fieldwork supplier, in several languages. In the inaugural BDO Ambition Survey in 2010 they surveyed 237 ‘c-suite’ executives with a variety of job titles in ten countries. This year BDO has expanded their research to cover 13 countries and has narrowed the respondents to Chief Financial Officers (CFOs - or their equivalent). The number of interviews conducted has increased considerably to 751. The businesses they interviewed represent businesses across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. 

KEY FINDINGS

Despite the economic and regulatory difficulties facing all businesses, a huge 95 percent of the mid cap CFOs they interviewed are confident that their three-year plans to expand internationally will succeed. On average, they expect 44 percent of their revenues in 2014 to come from sales outside their headquartered country, up from the current 37 percent.

This confidence and readiness to expand is set against a background, however, where 28% of CFOs state that conducting business abroad has become more difficult, while 23 percent claim it is easier than three years ago. For these CFOs, China offers three times the business opportunity of Brazil, the UK or France. However, China is seen as something of a gamble – although it has the most reward factors, it is also perceived as being one of the most challenging countries. That said, the business leaders they spoke to are more likely to make expansion decisions based on opportunities than on challenges.

You can download the full report here.

For further information please see also:

www.bdo

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 BDO Ambition Survey Broschuere (2.3 MB)