The economic presence of European companies in Algeria was scrutinized through the OFATS (Outward Foreign Affiliates Statistics) survey, a study aimed at evaluating the activity of foreign subsidiaries of European groups in the country. According to the latest survey data, France stands out as Algeria’s main European partner.
The OFATS survey questions European groups about their establishments abroad: several subsidiaries per country, turnover, and workforce of these subsidiaries. The objective of this system is to quantify the degree of internationalization of European groups, by measuring foreign establishments through the counting and characterization of their subsidiaries operating outside European territory.
The OFATS survey focuses on two aspects: the Inward component, which measures the activity of foreign companies on Algerian soil, and the Outward component, which examines European subsidiaries established abroad. The data from this survey concerning Algeria were published in the latest letter from the regional economic service of the French embassy in Algeria.
Thus, according to the latest European OFATS survey on the activity of foreign subsidiaries of European groups (i.e. more than 50% owned by a European parent entity), taking aggregated data for the year 2021, France occupies 1st place among European partners by number of subsidiaries with 201 subsidiaries in Algeria. Italy comes in second place with 30 subsidiaries, followed by Spain with 25 subsidiaries. Germany and Portugal are tied with 15 subsidiaries each.
In 10 years, the French presence has increased by 30%, from 156 to 201 subsidiaries, while Italy saw its presence drop from 69 subsidiaries to 30 (a decrease of 32 subsidiaries between 2020 and 2021). Spain saw its presence double from 11 to 25 subsidiaries between 2011 and 2021. Germany and Italy are on a rather stable trend, going from 17 to 15 subsidiaries and from 12 to 15 subsidiaries respectively.
Workforce and turnover
France also occupies 1st place among European countries in terms of workforce, with 23,657 employees in 2021, followed by Italy with 12,401 employees and Germany and Spain with 2181 and 2106 employees respectively. The numbers of European groups have all decreased in 10 years, except Spain.
The workforce of French groups decreased by 10% from a workforce of 26,708 in 2011 to 23,657 in 2021. Italy saw the workforce of its groups drop by 3% to 12,401, while the workforce of German groups increased. fell by 27% to 2181. Spain is the only European country which saw an increase in the numbers of its groups, by 25%, to 2106.
France also ranks first among European countries in terms of subsidiary turnover with a cumulative total of 2.4 billion euros, still followed by Italy (1.7 billion euros), Spain (1.1 billion euros) and Germany (400 million euros). French groups went from a turnover of 4.3 billion euros to 2.4 billion euros, a drop of 45%. Italian groups have also seen their turnover decline by 38% in 10 years to 1.7 billion euros.
Conversely, Spanish groups saw their turnover increase by 341%, from 245 million euros to 1.1 billion euros. Finally, the German and Swedish groups also saw their turnover increase (+13% for the German groups) but remained at a low level (400 million and 120 million euros respectively).
The long-term trend shows a decline in the overall turnover of European groups (a drop of 25% to around 5.8 billion euros), probably following the slowdown in growth from 2014, the reduction of imports, and the completion of major projects as well as the COVID crisis. However, activity is picking up for all European groups for the year 2021 (+21.6%) probably linked to a post-COVID base effect.
