American Investors Say Goodbye to Belgium

The figures of the Belgian National Bank are showing that the big American multinationals are not investing anymore in our country. For the first time in years, they no longer pump money into their Belgian branches. Moreover, they take back billions of euros to the U.S.

American investments in Belgium totally collapsed in 2009. Some even say it is taking a very negative downfall. While roughly two years ago the American companies were investing some four billion euros a year in their Belgian branches, an equal amount was pulled out last year.

This is proof that American companies are drastically reducing their assets in Belgian companies. More and more they ignore the country and prefer to invest their freshly recuperated money in neighboring countries. Furthermore, a number of American investors are leaving the country.

American investments have been crumbling for years now. Last year companies like Chiquita, Procter & Gamble and Samsonite choose to withdraw from the country. This statement came as an unpleasant surprise to AmCham, the American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium, which feels we should not yet speak of a negative investment downturn.

We witnessed an extreme downfall between 2007 and 2008, and even the first half of 2009. But, per American statistics, this later turned around. The perception of Marcel Claes, Director of AmCham, is that, while there is indeed a down trend, he thinks it is not so dramatic that we will now suddenly be facing negative waves.

Some specialists say we should not use the worldwide crisis as an excuse for our country. Perhaps we are indeed losing our competitive edge, and the crisis is certainly a part of it.

Kris Boschmans from the think tank VKW Metena, stated that the decrease in foreign investments does not explain why the downfall in this country is more acute than our neighbors. There is a lot more going on; since 2003-2004 our country was already losing ground to the Netherlands and Germany.

However, American headquarters are not completely drying out their Belgium branches. The investment figures from the National Bank do not account for the profit made by the Belgian branches, which are in turn reinvesting in their own activities.

It is not only American companies that are hard to convince to invest in Belgium. If the take over of Fortis Bank by French BNP Paribas should web away, total investments from the rest of the world will be rather small. Japanese investments in Belgium are also in a free fall, which has not yet been compensated by new capital from neighboring recovering economies.

Evidently, in 2009 not one company from the Middle East invested or bought a Belgian company. Meanwhile, the oil sheiks are eager to buy out numerous companies from within our neighbors’ borders.