Canadian firms investing overseas are more likely to choose London than any other city in the world, according to fDi Markets. During the period of January 2003 to June 2011, London received a total of 66 investment projects, with 2006 seeing the most annual projects with 10 in that particular year.

Hong Kong was London’s closest competitor for FDI coming from Canada, with a total of 47 projects, ahead of Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai and Singapore, which saw totals of 46, 41, 35 and 29 projects, respectively.

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Canada’s favoured US FDI destination city is New York, according fDi Markets data, ahead of Atlanta and Houston.

But despite London’s dominance in attracting Canadian FDI, it may have a new challenger in future years from São Paulo, Brazil, which witnessed a large surge in Canadian FDI in the 2010, with seven projects, only two behind London.

On closer examination of Canadian FDI into the UK, London is by far the most popular destination city. In fact, according to fDi Markets data, none of the other UK cities even managed to reach double figures for project numbers. Of the 66 Canadian projects that entered London, the most popular business sectors were software and information and communication technology, business services and financial services.

Recent examples include Ontario-based cloud computing company Igloo Software, which opened an office in London to strengthen existing customer relationships and identify new business opportunities. Meanwhile NetroMedia, a provider of internet streaming media services, opened a client services and information centre in London to provide sales, client services and technical support for clients throughout Europe.

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