The UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills published its Annual R&D Scorecard on Monday, ranking spending by 1,250 global companies and 850 UK companies.
Check the 'Downloads' tab on the left-hand column for the full 1,250 ranking. The link wasn't working at the time of posting this news report. Alternatively click:
FT 1,250 Ranking in Excel format
Three Irish companies are in the rankings: Irish drugs firm Elan got a 339 rank, spending £114.76 - 45% of sales. Kerry Group got a 394 rank, spending £93.67 - 3% of sales; Bank of Ireland got a 598 rank, spending £55.25 - 1.3% of sales.
Global R&D spending by the G1250 rose by 10% in 2006 to £244bn ($510bn, €348bn).
It continues to be dominated by companies registered in just five countries – the USA, Japan, Germany, France and the UK – which contributed 81% of R&D by the G1250. Firms from India and China have yet to establish themselves as significant players in the G1250, although other evidence suggests that both countries are increasingly important locations for R&D. Globally, average R&D intensity remains unchanged at 3.5% of sales.
The scoreboard shows the US moving ahead of Europe and the rest of the world. Its largest companies boosted their R&D investment by 13.4% to £98.6bn, 40% of the global total.
China and India both posted growth of more than 30% but from low bases – £766m for China and £268m for India. Israel’s eight companies in the top 1,250 increased their spending 27.8% to £492m – 84% higher than India’s figure.
R&D investment in the global pharmaceuticals sector grew by 16% in the last year; it has replaced technology hardware (which grew by 13%) as the largest global R&D sector. Other rapidly growing sectors amongst the ten largest investors were the software and aerospace & defence sectors which both grew at more than 12%.
Analysis in this Scoreboard suggests that, overall, the 75 UK companies in the G1250 have increased their R&D expenditure more quickly than their global peers in the same sectors, largely due to the concentration of UK firms in fast growing sectors such as pharmaceuticals. In many sectors, however, UK firms increased their R&D more slowly than their global peers.
There are well-established links between R&D growth and intensity and sales growth, wealth creation efficiency and market value.
Alongside excellent operations and strategic decision-making, companies continue to regard investment in R&D as a key factor determining future success: the Scoreboard shows this especially strongly in the UK’s aerospace, software and technology firms.
83% of UK R&D is conducted by the hundred most active companies and more than half of R&D activity by the 75 UK companies represented in the G1250 takes place in the pharmaceuticals and aerospace sectors.
R&D company spending was highest in the pharmaceuticals and biotech, with a 15.7% rise to £47.4bn, accounting for almost a fifth of the global total. US pharma giant Pfizer was the biggest spender.
Technology hardware and equipment spending was £43.1bn, up 13.2% with chipmaker Intel, heading the sector.
Microsoft was the biggest spender in the software and computer services sector, with an 8% rise to £3.6bn, putting it fourth in the league table of the global 1,250 top companies. R&D spending in the sector has fallen 6.5% over the last four years
Cars and parts was the third biggest sector with R&D investment rising 1.6% and marked by cuts among the top three US auto companies.
The biggest R&D spenders outside the US and Europe were Toyota, the Japanese carmaker, which raised its spending 8% to £3.5bn, and Korea’s Samsung Electronics, which spent £3.1bn, up 4%.
Value Added - Europe's Top 750 companies
The wealth created by a company is defined as value added (VA) which is:
Value Added = Sales less Costs of bought-in goods and services
This can be calculated from European companies’ audited accounts.
The top 750 European companies by value added (VA) created £1723bn of wealth (VA) in 2005/06, up 12% on the previous year (compared to a 9% increase recorded in 2006).
This VA is highly concentrated in the UK, Germany and France (63%), in six sectors (45%) and in the top 100 companies (55%) with the top 50 alone contributing over 38%.
Banks account
for more that half Irish company value added. CRH, Ryanair, Kerry, Grafton and INM make up the rest.
The Scoreboard website
is at www.innovation.gov.uk/value_added. The website contains a calculator function so that companies that are too small to be in the Scoreboard can calculate their value added and value added ratios and then benchmark themselves against UK and other European companies in their sector. The on-line calculator is at www.innovation.gov.uk/value_added/calculator.asp
Ranking of the the Top 100 Global Companies by R&D investment
