India and China were leading FDI sources among BRIC countries in 2011, while the largest average projects were coming from Russia, fDiMarkets data shows. The total number of projects coming from India was 429, with 423 from China. Russian and Brazilian companies lagged far behind, with 161 and 88 projects, respectively.

However, in terms of projects size, if measured by the capital expenditure, the average venture originating from Russia is nearly three times bigger than from China and almost twice as big the average size of an Indian project. Out of 1101 new projects, the vast majority were launched as greenfield ventures (961 projects).

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Out of a total of 38 sectors, the top five account for almost half of projects. The most popular sectors for BRIC-based companies are: financial services, software and IT, and business services. Project numbers for new mining projects were low, but the largest amount of capital ($16.4 bn in metals, $14bn in coal, oil and natural gas) was invested in the sector.

The top five destinations for FDI projects coming from BRIC countries account for 30% of all investments, with the US receiving the largest number of projects (135) and Indonesia the highest overall value of projects ($5.5bn). Among the most active investors were Indian consulting and engineering conglomerate Tata Group, Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei and State Bank of India. The top 10 biggest investors from BRIC countries accounted for 16.9% of all projects.

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