Betting company is biggest R&D investor in Malta

Malta is still lagging behind in investment in research and development, according to a new report issued by the European Commission in Brussels.

According to the report, the only significant R&D investment in Malta last year was made by Unibet - a global betting company which has set up its headquarters in Malta a few years ago. According to the report, the company invested more than €10 million in R&D last year, although this may not have all been spent in Malta as the company operates in 100 countries around the world.

The Commission's 2009 R&D scoreboard shows that worldwide corporate R&D investment increased by 6.9 per cent in 2008, in spite of the economic crisis while the increase in the EU was bigger at 8.1 per cent.

The R&D investment growth of EU companies, defined as companies having headquarters within the EU, is significantly higher than US ones for the second year, at 5.7 per cent, and Japanese ones, at 4.4 per cent. Two EU companies feature in the top ten: Volkswagen in third place with an R&D investment of €5.93 billion and Nokia in eighth place. The world's biggest investor in R&D was Toyota Motor, with €7.61 billion.

The European Commission EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard shows that despite the economic crisis, EU companies managed to maintain their R&D investment growth barely unchanged at 8.1 per cent from 8.8 per cent in 2007, whereas that of US companies fell from 8.6 per cent in 2007 to 5.7 per cent in 2008.

Companies based in emerging economies continued to show the highest R&D growth, led by China with a 40 per cent increase, India (27.3 per cent), Taiwan (25.1 per cent) and Brazil (18.6 per cent).

If the impact of the crisis is not yet fully reflected in the corporate R&D investment, it is more visible in other indicators collected by the Scoreboard, such as company operating profits, which dropped by 30.5 per cent for EU companies and by 19.1 per cent for US companies.

With regards to individual companies, the scoreboard shows that apart from the EU's Volkswagen and Nokia, among the top 10 R&D investors in the world, five are from the US, including Microsoft, and General Motors, Pfizer and one from Japan, Toyota. In the Top 50 R&D investors, 16 are EU companies and 18 hail from the US, two less each than in 2007, while Japan has 13 companies, four more than 2007.

However, EU companies in the top 50 had a higher average R&D intensity (R&D investment as percentage of sales) than non-EU companies, with 7.8 per cent compared to 6.8 per cent.

EU companies lead the way in the medium-high and medium-low R&D intensity sectors, such as automobile & parts, electronic and electrical equipment or chemicals.

The pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector reinforces its position as top R&D investor both worldwide and in the US. Many pharmaceutical companies showed a strong increase in R&D investment, such as Takeda Pharm. (+42.7 per cent), Boehringer Ingelheim (+21.9 per cent) and Schering-Plough (+20.6 per cent).

The automobiles and parts sector is the third worldwide, accounting for 17.1 per cent, but the first in EU and Japan. Despite being the first sector hit by the economic crisis, some automobile companies had double-digit R&D growth in the last year: Volkswagen (+20.4 per cent), Peugeot (+14.4 per cent) and Fiat (+14.1 per cent). Others reduced their R&D investment considerably, e.g. Renault (-9.2 per cent), Daimler (-9.1 per cent), BMW (-8.9 per cent), Ford Motor (-2.7 per cent), and General Motors (-1.2 per cent).

This year's Scoreboard also confirms the strong R&D activity of companies active in renewable energy technologies.