Thus, as Radio Prague notes, Russians manage more than 16% of firms in the Czech Republic that are owned by foreign legal entities and individuals, 12% of firms are managed by entities from Slovakia, nearly 11% from Ukraine, and 9% from Germany.
The number of companies in which a foreign individual or legal entity holds more than 50% increased by 12,000 over the year, i.e., by about 17%. The biggest contribution came from the increase in companies with a majority owner from Slovakia (their number rose by 1,813 over the year), followed by the UK (1,123 companies) and Ukraine (806).
"If we look at a longer time period from 2011 to 2017, we see that over the past six years, the number of Russian owners has increased more slowly than owners from other countries. Over the past five years, the number of companies managed from Slovakia increased (by 5,000), the number of firms with Ukrainian and Polish owners grew by 2,000. The number of firms managed from Russia increased by 1,300 over this period," said Jan Cikler, head of data division at CRIF.
The most dynamic growth in numbers was recorded for companies managed by Romanian owners, of which there are now 11 times more than six years ago. The number of companies with owners from Luxembourg increased by 55%, and from the UK by 50%.
While foreign owners from Russia, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries are, with few exceptions, individuals, in Western countries they are most often legal entities. Among Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian owners, 98% are individuals. For owners from so-called "tax havens" – Cyprus or Luxembourg, this is only 2% from each country.
Often, for companies from "tax havens" – Cyprus and Luxembourg, or from the Netherlands and the UK, it is not about companies whose capital originates from these countries. "Often these are so-called offshore companies with Czech capital or companies with capital from third countries. For example, among the ten largest British companies by basic capital operating in the Czech Republic, only four can be said or guessed to have capital originating directly from the UK," notes Jan Cikler.