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Financial Globalisation
INCREASE IN THE FINANCIAL ASSETS OF INDUSTRIAL
MNCs
Multinational corporations have adapted remarkably well to the new
global financial realities. No surprise, really, given their own
increased involvement in financial operations that are often far
removed from their largely industrial origins. A number of tradition
ally industrial companies now come closer to resembling financial
outfits that make ongoing decisions based on the profitability of
investments made in their various subsidiaries and sectors of activity.
To all intents and purposes, they are financial houses with an
industrial focus.
In such a situation, even the biggest industrial concerns see their
productive operations as one among many forms of capital valorisa
tion. The term 'global' is used to characterise the strategy of
multinational corporations; in the present context, it has two com
plementary meanings. On the one hand, it corresponds to the
planetary (even if largely concentrated in the US-Europe-Japan
Triad) scope of corporate activity. On the other hand, it reflects the
fact that corporate strategy is ever more clearly based on asset val
orisation - of both a financial and industrial nature, in broadly equal
parts (Serfati, 1996). Most industrial houses have set up enterprise
banks and credit establishments that handle their financial
operations. According to a study carried out by the MacKinsey firm
on 3 25 multinational corporations, such banks have been gateways
to success for those that have set them up.
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