Foreign ownership

Foreign ownership refers to the complete or majority ownership/control of a business or resource in a country by individuals who are not citizens of that country, or by companies whose headquarters are not in that country.

In general, foreign ownership happens when multinational corporations, which are companies that conduct economic activities in more than one countries, inject long-term investments in a foreign country, usually in the form of foreign direct investment or acquisition.

If a multinational corporation acquires half or more than half of a company, the multinational corporation becomes a holding company and the company receiving the foreign investment becomes a subsidiary. Also, foreign ownership can happen when a domestic property is acquired by a foreign individual. For example, an Indian businessman purchasing a house in Hong Kong.

Foreign ownership is the state of being owned by a person or company from another country.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the following factors relating to a company, the foreign interest, and the government of the foreign interest are reviewed in the aggregate in determining whether a company is under Foreign Ownership, control or Influence:

Company in the host country can learn from multinational corporations

Inward foreign direct investment has an overall positive effect in employment as companies have more capital to expand.

This is a result of higher productivity, which is beneficial for consumers and the company's export competitiveness.

Foreign ownership can increase the demand of products, leading to price rise.

Due to the increase in productivity in the firms in foreign ownership, other domestic companies are relatively less competitive, resulting in lower profit.

Multinational corporations may influence government policies due to its power, especially in less-developed countries. This may have an adverse impact on economic development. Either decrease of employment due to operational optimization, or increase due planned expansion. Lowered wages for any new employees based on new corporate policies, optimised employee benefits package resulting in reduced benefits to all. Contributing to the demise of local economies by siphoning dollars out of communities and to global elites.

...
Wikipedia