Foreign buyers snap up Canadian manufacturers

A flurry of mergers and acquisitions has left the majority of Canada’s manufacturing industry in foreign hands, according to a recent survey by Statistics Canada.

The report, which is based on data from 2007, revealed that in that year 52.8 percent of manufacturing assets were controlled by foreign-based companies operating in Canada – up from 46.8 percent the year before.

The increase was due largely to foreign acquisitions of Canadian-owned firms, Statistics Canada says. US firms were most likely to hold Canadian corporate assets – making up 54.7 percent of ownership – with UK firms in second place at 13.4 percent.

This is the first time since 1999 that foreign companies have owned more than 50 percent of Canadian manufacturing assets.

When looking at Canadian corporate assets as a whole, Statistics Canada says foreign-controlled firms accounted for 21.3 percent of overall corporate assets in 2007, up slightly from 21.1 per cent in 2006.