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4.35. Abstracting from practical considerations, the
country of ultimate beneficial ownership is conceptually
preferable for the attribution of variables concerning
industrial activity because that is the country that
ultimately owns or controls - and therefore derives the
benefits from owning or controlling - the direct
investment enterprise. In the
light of the relevance of
the UBO basis and the demonstration by a number of
countries that compilation on this basis is feasible, the
present
Manual recommends the UBO basis as the first
priority for compilation of FATS statistics and the basis
on which estimates should be prepared in the greatest
detail. However, considering that information on first
foreign parents may be available as a by-product of
linkages to FDI data and to facilitate comparisons with
these data, countries are encouraged to make available
some data in which variables are attributed according to
the country of the first foreign parent.
(b) Outward FATS
4.36. For affiliates owned by residents of the
compiling economy, two options for attribution of
FATS variables by country are possible. The variables
could be attributed to the country of location of the
affiliate or - if the ownership is through a directly held
affiliate located in another country - to the country of
that affiliate. The present
Manual recommends that
attribution be to the country of the affiliate whose
operations are described by the variables, for that is the
country in which the foreign direct investor’s
commercial
presence exists, and it is the country where
the various activities (sales, employment etc.) tracked
by the statistics are carried out. This recommendation
is consistent with the treatment of foreign-controlled
enterprises in the 1993 SNA, in that the value added in
production by the enterprise is attributed in both cases
to (i.e., is included in the gross domestic product of)
the economy of location of the enterprise. To the
extent that the statistics may be used in conjunction
with statistics on resident/non-resident foreign direct
investment transactions recorded in balance of
payments accounts, it should be noted that the latter are
attributed, following BPM5 and BD3, to the immediate
host country, as is appropriate for tracking financial
flows and positions.
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BPM5 also recognizes that direct investment transactions (but
not positions) involving parties located in third countries
might, following the “transactor”
basis of regional allocation,
be attributed to those countries; an example of such a
transaction would be the sale or purchase by a direct investor
(c) Note on the equal ownership of shares by
residents of more than one country
4.37. Ordinarily, FATS variables for a given foreign
affiliate are attributed in their entirety to a single country
of owner. As descriptors of the operations of affiliates,
they should not be factored down by ownership shares.
Nor should the values of the variables be apportioned
between the majority owner and any foreign minority
owners. However, where
supplemental statistics are
provided covering cases in which foreign control has
been achieved other than through majority ownership by
a single investor, classification dilemmas may arise
where direct investors of different countries have
collectively achieved majority ownership through
holdings of equal shares. Because the ownership is
evenly split, the determination of the country of owner
has to be made using criteria other than ownership
percentages.
4.38. Although it is sometimes difficult to reach a
decision in such cases, there is often some factor that
would lead to the selection of
one country rather than the
other. For example, if one owner’s interest in the
affiliate is held directly and the other owner’s interest is
held indirectly, the affiliate generally would be classified
in the country of the owner holding the direct interest.
As another example, if one of the foreign owners is a
government entity, then the country of that Government
would probably be considered the country of owner.
Finally, if one of the foreign owners is a holding
company or is located or incorporated in a tax haven
country, then the country of the other owner would
probably be considered the country of owner. In the
absence of any such factor that could be used as a basis
of attribution, the value
of FATS variables may be
allocated evenly among the foreign countries of
ownership. However, data so allocated may pose
problems of interpretation, and efforts should first be
made to determine a basis for allocation to a single
country.
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