Uruguay caught more than 220 investment projects from foreign companiesbetween announcements and investments made, in the last four years, according to a report carried out by the government agency Uruguay XXI, which also considered the attraction of talent as one of the relevant issues on the subject.
Since 2019, the annual number of companies of foreign origin that are committed to some initiative in the country has grown. Whether they are advertisements new investments, that is, operations of new companies that establish themselves in the country or the amplification or diversification in foreign companies that are already established; as well as advertisements fusions and acquisitionswhich are transactions in which a company fully or partially acquires a premises, the total number increases year after year.
It is so that in 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic, There were 45 foreign investment projects presented, of which 29 were new investments and 16 were mergers. In 2020, meanwhile, the total reached 50, with 36 new investments and 14 mergers. The following year there were 64 registered operations, of which 50 were new investments and, again, 14 mergers.
Already Last year, the total number of projects reached 68, with 42 investments and 26 mergers. If the initiatives accumulated during those four years are considered, Uruguay attracted 227 projects from foreign companies in that period of time.
The numbers for 2022
According to the report of Uruguay XXI, In 2022, 62% of the projects surveyed were new investments and 38% were mergers or acquisitions. Likewise, within the first group, the majority corresponded to new companies (86%) and the remainder to investments by companies and installed in Uruguay (14%). In turn, within the mergers, 73% were total acquisitions and the remaining 27% were minority stakes.
This marks a noticeable change in trend compared to previous years, since although the weight of new investments continues to be greater, there was also a decrease compared to 2021, while the mergers and acquisitions transactions those that generated the growth of investments.
According to the government agency, this also happens to global level, where the increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) It was mainly explained by the growth of mergers and acquisitions operations.
Uruguay XXI indicated, in turn, that the investment announcements surveyed during 2022 are expected to generate more than 2,800 jobs approximately.
At the sectoral level, the information and communication technologies (ICT) continues to maintain the dynamism of previous years with a greater number of investment announcements. The main flow of inquiries came mostly from Argentina, United States and Canada. Although in the last year there was, as a consequence of the international situation, an increase in interest from companies from Eastern Europe and from other countries in the region such as Chili and Peru by centralizing operations in Uruguay.
In this sense, the talent attraction deserved an entire chapter in the report Uruguay XXI, as well as the various initiatives implemented in the short term to attract professionals from abroad with technology profilesboth as residents and digital nomads.
Source: Ambito
