La France – Championne du Monde des Marques

Between 2005 and 2014, French firms invested more than $43.8 billion acquiring foreign brands, while foreign firms invested $11.3 billion acquiring French brands. In other words, the overall value of investments in foreign brands by French companies exceeds the value of brands sold to foreign firms by a factor of 3.9 times – the highest ratio of its kind in the world.

As a point of comparison, Switzerland comes closest with a factor of 3.0 times, and Germany and Canada far behind at 1.4 and 1.3 times, respectively. Other countries carry a deficit, including Australia (0.3x), the UK (0.6x), the US (0.7x) and Italy (0.7x).

Most notably, famous French brands like LU biscuits, Conforama, Yoplait, and Saint Hubert have recently been acquired by international firms. And meanwhile, French firms have acquired their fair share of iconic foreign brands, including prestigious alcohol brands (Ballantine’s and Absolut), sports equipment (Puma), clinical nutrition (Nutricia), and even jewelry (Bulgari).

Read the full article by Luc Paugam, Christof Binder and Henri Philippe here.