INWARD INVESTMENT
Rising challenge to the
INWARD INVESTMENT ORGANISATIONS AND RELOCATION SUPPLIERS
Overseas investment organisations are lining up to attract companies to their region of Europe, including the UK. Fiona Murchie investigates what a selection of them have on offer, and looks at some of the relocation management companies and destination services providers that can support businesses on the move.
T
he sector most actively planning relocation moves at present is the financial sector, and, in particular,
global banks and financial institutions. At the recent Brexit Business Planning Forum, held in London, it was clear that Frankfurt was positioning itself as the front-runner. However, its attitude is very much one
of partnership. In reality, Eric Menges, president and CEO of FrankfurtRheinMain, explained, not many organisations are coming to Frankfurt to find things out for themselves. He is surprised by the lack of knowledge and understanding of the decentralised system in Germany. Gergly Polner, head of Europe Public Affairs at Standard Chartered Bank,
speaking on the same panel, explained that organisations wouldn’t need to relocate unless they had regulatory reasons to do so. His bank saw Europe as just one of its international regions, with Asia its prime expansion area and Africa further down the line. John Cryan, head of Deutsche Bank,
told a bankers’ forum in Frankfurt in September, as reported in the UK press, “A major financial centre requires a complex ecosystem and the right mix of taxes, regulation and market breadth. There is only one European city that can fulfil these requirements, and that city is Frankfurt.”
Tapping in to expertise London’s infrastructure is perceived to
be unique, handling about 40 per cent of global currency trades, which are booked in London, and two-thirds of interest-rate derivatives in euros. Frankfurt is likely to be the top choice for the larger banks and financial institutions, because it is where the European Central Bank is headquartered. Paris and Amsterdam and the smaller
financial hubs already appear to have been overtaken, despite HSBC’s setting the trend for Paris earlier in the year.
We could see banks moving smaller
numbers of staff – in the region of 200 to 300 – out of London, but, over the longer term, expansion in Germany and other European markets would evolve responding to market demand and outsourcing criteria. However, it is likely that momentum will pick up during 2018 and there will be a ripple effect. See also our Hot Topic feature (p6). It is clear that international organisations
large and small, and the relocation professions supporting their moves, should pay more attention to the inward investment bodies in regions throughout the UK, Europe and globally. Over the summer months, I have attended
a number of events at which overseas and UK investment agencies have been present. Inward investment bodies provide access to a wealth of location knowledge about industry sectors in their region, as well as access to financial and set-up support and information ranging from property to infrastructure and workforce skills. Of course, access to support will vary
across countries and regions, as will government and local regulations dictating the level of support on offer, but it is worth
14 | Re:locate | Autumn 2017
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