The Spanish business fabric is neither static nor sedentary. In addition to those companies that are born, grow, reproduce (or not) and die within the natural cycle of any ecosystem, a not insignificant percentage of companies wander from one autonomous community to another in search of a more favorable framework for their activity, be it from the fiscal, regulatory, political, legal and institutional point of view, or a cocktail of all of them.
A total of 3,871 companies moved their headquarters from one region to another between January and September of this year, according to data from Informa D
Now, in the midst of the war in Ukraine and with a new crisis knocking at the door, companies have resumed their migration process between regions, which reached its climax in 2017 and 2018 on the back of the separatist riot and its illegal self-determination referendum. Then, the companies began a diaspora towards other Spanish autonomies that, although it has lost intensity, has not stopped at all.
Between January and September of this year, 659 companies left Catalonia for other Autonomous Communities, while only 495 entered from other autonomous communities, which yields a negative net balance of 164 companies, the largest loss of business fabric among all the regions so far this year, according to data provided to EXPANSIÓN by Informa D
This new loss of business muscle is added to the nearly 5,000 leaks suffered by the Catalan economy since 2017, in a hemorrhage that does not stop although it has been attenuated in recent years. The political and institutional instability in Catalonia, now with separatism split in two and a Generalitat that governs precariously, together with its high fiscal pressure, among the highest in Spain, do not constitute the best breeding ground to attract private investment and to companies.
It is not the only CCAA that loses business nerve. Another nine autonomies show negative balances, with Navarra in second position with 59 fewer companies; followed by Castilla y León (-54), Aragón (-39) and Castilla-La Mancha (-31). Completing the ranking is La Rioja, whose business fabric thins out by 21 companies; Extremadura, which does it in 8; Melilla (-6); Cantabria (-4), and the Canary Islands (-1).
The Basque Country remains in the tables, with as many entries as exits (155), although in its case an important transfer is noted in terms of billing with the arrival of the headquarters of Pan America Energy, previously in Madrid, a company that enters more than 3,135 million of euros per year.
On the other side of the coin is Madrid, which year after year is consolidated as the main destination for companies that decide to pack their bags and move. Of the 3,871 companies that moved their headquarters in the first nine months of the year, 1,351 chose Madrid as their new destination; that is, almost 35% of the total. Within the framework of this geographical mobility, traffic is always bidirectional and Madrid is no exception, although in its case the entries clearly exceeded the 1,096 exits, yielding a positive balance of 255 companies.
It is, by far, the community that has gained the greatest business muscle between January and September, followed far behind by the Balearic Islands, with a net balance of 32 companies; Andalusia, which added 31, and the Valencian Community, with a positive balance of 28.
Of the 659 companies that left Catalonia up to September, 284 chose Madrid as their new headquarters (43% of the total), while of the 1,096 that emigrated from that last region, 257 did so in the direction of the Catalan community (23.4% ). Madrid also welcomed 226 companies from Andalusia; 166 from the Valencian Community and 128 from Castilla-La Mancha.
Since 2012, the year in which the then president of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, opened the box of thunder of independence, Catalonia shows, year after year, negative balances in its arrivals and departures of companies, a clear business bleeding that contrasts with the Madrid data, which links at least eleven exercises with positive balances. Its commercial and schedule freedom, its favorable business climate and its increasingly low tax model, which is now facing the Government’s offensive with the new tribute to fortunes (in Madrid Heritage is 100% subsidized), they explain the pull of the community between the companies that decide to change their residence.
