The EMENDATA database1
EMENDATA – Emerging Multinationals Events and Networks DATAbase – includes all
cross border greenfield investments, mergers & acquisitions and minority investments from
multinationals in emerging countries2, occurred from 2003 to 2011.3
The main data sources of EMENDATA are: fDiMarkets from the Financial Times providing
information on greenfield investments, Zephyr from the Bureau van Dijk (BvD) and SDC
Platinum from Thomson Reuters both collecting data on Mergers and Acquisitions and other
minority investments.4
EMENDATA consists in the merging of several data sources that are very different in nature.
A major accomplishment is the harmonization of the information from these diverse sources
in order to make them comparable and jointly accessible. This has been possible thanks to a
meticulous and manual work, with the support of the information on investing firms and their
ownership structure available in the Orbis database by the Bureau van Dijk.
EMENDATA provides information at the level of the single deal, of the investing company
and of the global ultimate owner (GUO). The main information provided at the level of the
deal are the following: a) entry mode; b) sector of specialization of the investing company and
of the subsidiaries; c) activities undertaken by the subsidiaries; d) location of the subsidiaries
and e) number of jobs created. At the investing company and global ultimate level, all the
1
Riskbankens Jubileumsfond is gratefully acknowledged for its financial contribution.
There is not an official definition of emerging countries. In the database we have included all countries belonging to
the lower and upper middle-income groups according to the World Bank classification.
3
2003 is the first year of availability of greenfield investments in fDiMarkets. Data are currently being updated to
2013. All the investments included are completed deals. It should be noticed that when a disinvestment occurs it is not
reported in the original sources.
4
Minority investments are all the acquisitions of shares in which the acquirer purchases a number of shares in the
target and the resulting stake held is less than 50%. There is not a minimum share for considering a deal as a minority
investment.
2
existing economic and financial data are included, linking EMENDATA to external data
sources (e.g. Orbis).
With regard to firm- and group-level analyses, an innovative feature of EMENDATA is that
all the deals included have been linked to firm-level identifiers (both on the investor and on
the target company side) as well as to group-level identifiers, therefore consolidating all the
deals (both domestic and foreign) undertaken by GUO. Such a coding procedure allows to
link up the investors to all the company and group information available in the three original
data sources (fDiMarkets, Zephyr and SDC Platinum).5
Furthermore, the identification of the GUO also allows to link the investing firm to a wide set
of information included in BvD Orbis, such as ownership structure, localisation of domestic
and foreign subsidiaries, different sectors of economic activity, consolidated and
unconsolidated balance indicators, firm size variables; names and types of shareholders and
patenting activity. Other possible additional sources of information about the GUOs are FT
Emerging 500, Forbes Global 500, Fortune Global 500 and the EU Industrial R&D
Investment Scoreboard.
Based on the wealth of this information, it is possible to investigate in a very detailed and
disaggregated manner the multinational activity of emerging countries’ companies, exploring
the intersections of the above-mentioned different dimensions. The information available in
EMENDATA can be disaggregated by deal type or by target countries, by the companies
undertaking foreign deals within each group with a disaggregation by mode of entry and
geographical destination as well as the sectors of investment and the sectoral disaggregation
between the parent company and the subsidiaries.
Below we provide some descriptive tables about the content of EMENDATA. More information
can be found in the report Technology-Driven FDI by Emerging Multinationals in Europe. A list
of publications using EMENDATA is also included.
We are open to receive proposals for collaborations on research projects using
EMENDATA. If you are interested please send an email to [email protected]
5
In some cases a manual checking has been undertaken to solve discrepancies among the different sources.
Amendolagine A., Cozza C., Rabellotti, R., 2014, Chinese and Indian Multinationals: A FirmLevel Analysis of Their Investments in Europe, 27, CIRCLE – Lund University.
Amighini, A. Cozza, C., Rabellotti, R. & Sanfilippo, M., 2014, “Investigating Chinese Outward
Foreign Direct Investments: How Can Firm‐ level Data Help”, China & World Economy,
22(6), 44-63.
Cozza C., Rabellotti R Sanfilippo M, 2014, The Impact of Outward FDI on the Performance of
Chinese Multinationals, BOFIT Discussion Papers 24, Bank of Finland, Helsinki.
Piscitello, L., Rabellotti, R. & Scalera, V.G., 2014, “Chinese and Indian acquisitions in Europe:
The relationship between motivation and entry mode choice”, in Risberg, A., King, D. and
Meglio, O. (Eds), The Routledge Companion to Merger and Acquisition, London:
Routledge.
Piscitello, L., Rabellotti, R. and Scalera, V.G., “Chinese and Indian M&As in Europe: The
relationship between motive and ownership choice”, CIRCLE Working Paper no. 2014/3,
Lund University.