European survey on activities of subsidiaries under national control implanted in foreign countries 

Outward FATS

The objective of this scheme is :

• to understand better the challenges of globalization and the role of multinationals

• to measure the degree of internationalization of French groups (their foreign presence) through the counting and characterization of their subsidiaries operating outside the national territory.

This scheme is led within the framework of the EBS (European Business Statistics) regulation, the OFATS survey complies with European Regulation n°2019/2152 of 27th November 2019. It includes two sectors:

• on one hand Inward FATS try to measure the activity of the foreign firms on the national territory;

• on the other hand Outward is dedicated to the follow-up of subsidiaries under national control implanted in foreign countries.

The objective of Eurostat is to move closer by a symmetry, to the data collected in both sources Inward et Outward to reconstitute the whole puzzle.

Before the OFATS survey, the sources of information on the internationalization of French groups were few in number and difficult to reconcile; The statistics relating to foreign trade in goods and those of the balance of payments shed specific light on the subject of the globalization of the economy without, however, characterizing in a precise manner the international activity of the groups.

The "Subsidiaries" survey carried out every two years by the local economic missions of the Direction Générale du Trésor was the only source enabling French interests abroad to be assessed, through the number of establishments of French groups (companies more than 10% owned by a French parent company, secondary establishments or representative offices) and their weight in terms of turnover and employment. The coverage rate of this survey, however, varied according to the size of the countries and the reliability of the information.

The first OFATS survey covered the 2007 FY. It was the pilot survey carried out by France at the request of Eurostat, on a voluntary basis.The scope defined for this first edition was that of French groups having at least one subsidiary located outside the European Union. Following the success of this pilot experiment, the OFATS survey is now conducted every year.

The OFATS survey covering the year 2009 asks French groups about the same characteristics of their establishment abroad: number of subsidiaries by country and activity and turnover and employment of these subsidiaries. However, compared to the pilot survey, this new edition of the survey allows for a broader diagnosis of internationalized groups since the field of observation has been extended to French groups having at least one subsidiary located outside France.

Since the 2016 FY, the survey is based on a sample of approximatly 2,750 groups.

Survey

Annual

Directorate of Statistics, Studies and International affairs