Jaguar Land Rover plant near Nitra is under construction (source: TASR)
The fear of British companies over Brexit has already impacted on the number of new firms registered abroad. Slovakia is also being impacted by this development as the number of British companies doing business in Slovakia has increased to a record level compared with last year, the latest analysis of the company Bisnode suggests.
As many as 1,377 British firms are doing business in Slovakia, up from the 1,018 reported at the end of 2016. This is a 35 percent annual increase, with almost 400 new companies registered in Slovakia since last year, according to Bisnode.
“This is the largest year-on-year increase in the past seven years since Bisnode has been monitoring the number of entrepreneurs from the UK on the Slovak market, an upsurge of 80 percent since then,” said company’s analyst Petra Štěpánová.
Also, the amount of basic capital of British firms in Slovakia is record high. Total capital from the UK amounts to €726 million, which is twice as much as last year.
“This significant increase in basic capital is caused by the investment of Jaguar Land Rover who are building a brand-new plant near Nitra,” Štěpánová said.
The carmaker’s capital invested into its subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia amounted to more than €30 million last year, while currently it is more than €330 million.
“Jaguar is currently the biggest British investor in Slovakia,” Štěpánová added.
The Bisnode analysis also suggests that though the talks on the conditions for the UK to leave the European Union still have not moved forward significantly, British companies are starting to be afraid of Brexit. As a result, they are registering more companies abroad, a fact from which Slovakia may also benefit.
