New Delhi, Apr 4 (KNN) Over 700 Indian-owned small to large sized businesses in the United Kingdom are collectively employing over 100,000 persons, said a study report from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Indian companies are playing an important role in the British economy, contributing to positive GDP and employment growth, according to Grant Thornton UK LLP's India Tracker 2014 report jointly developed in collaboration with CII.

The report monitors UK registered businesses with ultimate Indian parent companies to identify the fastest-growing corporates by turnover and employment size.

Of these, 41 organisations were identified as registering year-on-year growth rates of more than 10 per cent, with more than half (26 corporates) demonstrating particularly strong growth in excess of 20 per cent.

These ‘Top 41′, the report suggests, generated around 19 billion pounds in combined revenues.

Despite outliers, such as Tata Motors (accounting for more than 80 per cent of the Top 41 group’s total turnover), the group represents a broad range of large corporates (5), mid-sized corporates (17) and SMEs (19) across the UK.

"The appetite and opportunities for successful UK investment by Indian companies remains as strong as ever. In light of sluggish growth potential in India, investors are increasingly eager to enter, or scale up their UK operations as the British economy re-enters a growth phase,” Partner and Head of the South Asia Group at Grant Thornton UK LLP, Anuj Chande commented.

He also said the UK and India's cultural history also plays a large part in many Indian executives decision to set up a base here, giving them direct UK market access and a springboard into the recovering European market. 

High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom Ranjan Mathai launched the report earlier this week at an exclusive dinner attended by some of the fastest growing and largest Indian employers.

"I am very pleased that this research has been conducted to show the strength of Indian investment and the range of business in which they have invested in the UK. This complements the UKTI statistics of India being the 5th largest investor in the UK last year.” he said.

The pharmaceutical/chemical and technology/telecoms sectors represent over half of the organisations in the Top 41 (22 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively); although the automotive, transport and engineering and manufacturing sectors are also strongly represented. 

Geographically, the top 41 had operations spread across the UK, with 29 per cent based in London, 32 per cent based in the South, 29 per cent in the North and 10 per cent based in the Midlands. 

The report has also identified 12 Indian corporates which each employ more than 1,000 people in the UK. (KNN/ST)