EUROPEAN investment in China is growing more concentrated around a handful of large firms, with most of them from Germany, according to a new report by research organization Rhodium Group.

From 2018 through 2021, the top 10 European companies investing in China made up nearly 80%, on average, of total investment from the continent, the report published Thursday showed.

German businesses contributed more than two-fifths of the money pouring into the world’s second-largest economy from Europe.

Underlining how concentrated the cash flows have become, carmakers Volkswagen AG, BMW AG, and Daimler AG and chemicals group BASF SE accounted for a third of all European investment into China from 2018 to 2021.

Germany as a whole, where former Chancellor Angela Merkel actively encouraged and aided firms to enter the Chinese market, accounted for 43% of foreign direct investment over those four years, compared with 34% in the previous decade.

Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and France made up 87% of investment over the last four years compared with 69% in the previous decade. (SD-Agencies)