The Number

Legacy Entertainment, the Burbank production house behind the Batman films, is owned by a Chinese investment fund. Swiss food conglomerate Nestle has its U.S. headquarters in Glendale. And Medtronic Diabetes in Northridge is owned by a company in Ireland. These are Valley examples of foreign direct investment, the subject of a report released last month from Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Based on private data from Dun & Bradstreet, the Brookings Institution and the Financial Times, the report estimates there were 4,367 foreign-owned companies in Los Angeles County last year, providing 177,427 jobs and paying $11.9 billion in wages. In Ventura County, 339 foreign businesses employed 13,582 people and paid $855 million in annual wages. In Southern California, the impact of foreign companies, either directly or by supporting other jobs in the supply chain, accounted for 8.1 percent of all jobs, the report estimates. “As a region with robust connections to the global economy, foreign direct investment and foreign-owned establishments will continue to play an important role in Southern California,” it states. The countries with the most investments in Los Angeles County were Japan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The biggest industrial sector was retail with 928 companies, although manufacturing heads the list for employees with 38,281. In Ventura County, the top three countries were France, Japan and the Netherlands. According to the United Nations, global foreign direct investment flows totaled $1.7 trillion in 2015, an increase of 36 percent compared to the previous year. Foreign investment flows to the United States were $384 billion in 2015, making it the largest recipient nation. – Joel Russell