Methodological note – data definitions and data extraction
Published 21 November 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overview-of-greenfield-foreign-direct-investment/methodological-note-data-definitions-and-data-extraction
The data used in this analysis is downloaded through fDi Markets, from the Financial Times Ltd 2023. This is a subscribed database collecting and collating public data relating to crossborder investment.
The data contained in this service is based on publicly available data, as described below, and is built bottom up from the activities of individual companies. This means it will be different to Official Statistics on FDI in the UK, like ONS publications who base their underlying analysis on surveys of foreign-owned companies in the UK.
The analysis is concerned with Greenfield FDI. Greenfield FDI is a type of FDI where a foreign investor starts a new business by establishing a new entity, setting up new offices, building, production or operational facilities in the UK. fDi Markets include only Greenfield FDI.
The following definitions are collected from the fDi Markets data dictionary:
fDi Markets tracks crossborder investment in a new physical project or expansion of an existing investment which creates new jobs and capital investment. Joint ventures are only included where they lead to a new physical operation. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and other equity investments are not tracked.
Data is collected primarily from publicly available sources, including:
- Financial Times newswires and internal information sources
- thousands of media sources, including all the world’s top business sources
- over 2000 industry organisations and investment promotion agencies newswires
- data purchased from market research and publication companies
Each project identified is cross-referenced against multiple sources, with primary focus on direct company sources. This allows further company and project information to be captured, including decision making contacts.
As the data is collected primarily from publicly available sources, Financial Times Ltd takes no responsibility for the accuracy or otherwise of the data.
Each project is classified according to its cluster, sector, sub-sector, and business activity, based on a proprietary industry classification system. Each project is classified individually based on the activity at the site in question and as such, a company can have projects classified in multiple sectors.
The sector selected on an FDI project indicates what is being provided at the site of the FDI project. This is unique to each FDI project and while it is guided by the company involved, a company may have projects in multiple sectors.
fDi Markets includes a combination of both announced and completed (or opened) projects. The data is collected real time as announced by a company, sometimes the first announcement can be when the project is being opened, that is, completed. The data on fDi Markets is subject to revision as new or additional information is released on previous investment projects.