More than a half of direct foreign investments, amounting to EUR527.7 million, refer to retained profit, ownership investments account for 313.1 million, while other investments account for 284.4 million.
Statistical data on foreign direct investments in the first six months were considerably marked by a transaction related to the Splitska Banka, which was sold by Bank Austria Creditanstalt to the French banking group Societe Generale for around one billion euros.
Data provided by the central bank show that slightly more than one billion euros (1,054 million) of foreign direct investments came from France. An outflow amounting to 535.8 million was reported by Austria in the same period, which the HNB says can be either the withdrawal of profit or a sale.
Statistics show that in the first half of 2006 more than 70 percent or 589.6 million euros of 840.8 million worth of direct foreign investments and retained profit refers to financial transactions, i.e. the banking sector.
This sector is followed by wholesale trade and trade mediation, with foreign direct investments and retained profit amounting to 100.8 million euros, the post and telecommunications sector and oil and gas mining with investments worth 82.7 and 82.1 million euros respectively.
Outflows were reported in several sectors, which probably means the withdrawal of investment profit, and the highest outflow, amounting to 129.9 million, was reported in the production of chemicals.
Over the past 13 and a half years foreign investors were mostly interested in financial transactions, with foreign direct investments and retained profit amounting to EUR3.1 billion, followed by telecommunications with 1.5 billion, and the chemical industry with 1.04 billion.
The leading investors since 1993 have been companies from Austria (2.65 billion), Germany (2.08 billion), the United States (1.2 billion), and France (1.19 billion).
These countries are followed by Italy (971.7 million), Hungary (895.9 million), the Netherlands (863.1 million), Luxembourg (776 million), and Slovenia (519.5 million).
According to HNB data, in the first six months of this year foreign investments by Croatian companies amounted to EUR22.9 million. The investments since 1993 total 1.7 billion.