A shifting corporate landscape in Spain and the Valencian Community
Companies sometimes move their registered offices for practical reasons such as seeking larger land areas, expanding facilities, or aiming for closer proximity to their core markets. Sometimes the move is prompted by ownership changes, personal choices, or tax considerations. Just as Catalonia experienced independence movements in 2017 and 2018, corporate relocations can hinge on a mix of internal decisions and broader political or market forces. In many years, thousands of Spanish firms relocate to different autonomous communities, a trade-off that rarely yields a clear winner or loser for the region involved.
Last year the Valencian Community emerged as the second most attractive region in terms of balance between inbound and outbound relocations. More companies entered than left, but this did not translate into a higher regional turnover. In fact, increases in departures helped reduce the area’s overall turnover, illustrating how a net influx alone does not guarantee growth in sales.
Data from D and B shows a notable migration pattern: in the previous year a total of 5,034 Spanish companies moved from one autonomous community to another, a decline of 6.8 percent. Madrid stood out by attracting 332 more firms than those that departed, while the Basque Country posted the strongest turnover gain, with 2,280 million in revenue largely driven by the acquisition of Pan American Energy. These dynamics underscore how relocation can shape both corporate density and revenue, even when transfer activity is uneven across regions.
For the Valencian Community the result favored inbound movements, with 40 more firms entering than leaving during the last reporting period. Specifically, 491 merchants relocated from other parts of the country, compared with 451 that departed. The net effect was a positive balance for the Valencian Community, contrasting with regions such as Madrid, which saw stronger inflows but also greater overall movement, and others like Murcia and the Balearic Islands, which experienced net losses.
On the turnover side, the Valencian Community did not enjoy the same uplift as some other regions. Inbound relocations contributed 294 million euros to regional turnover, while outbound relocations accounted for 345 million euros, resulting in a net loss of 51 million euros. In short, companies that left the autonomous community were typically larger than those that arrived from other parts of Spain.
Madrid experienced a similar pattern with a large outbound effect and a notable inflow of revenue from other regions, whereas the Basque Country benefited more from inward movements that translated into substantial earnings, aided by strategic acquisitions such as the Pan American Energy deal. These contrasts highlight how regional strategies and market conditions influence both the flow of firms and the value they bring to their new bases.
In recent years, some 63 municipalities in the state have developed a stronger corporate footprint than before the pandemic. Looking back to 2015, the Valencian Community had a cumulative gain of 516 traders through this relocation channel, with the most intensive activity occurring in 2017 and 2018, coinciding with the Catalan independence process and the transfer of several large institutions to the region, including CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell. This history helps explain ongoing patterns in regional economic changes and the resilience of the Valencian market in the face of shifting corporate destinations.