Overseas investors ploughed more than £1bn into the North West region’s economy in the past year.
There were also £406m of deals completed by businesses in the region overseas.
Corporate finance director Paul Lupton said the North West region was 2nd only to London for mergers and acquisition activity bringing an optimistic outlook for 2013.
He said: “Despite the reservations of some, who view takeovers from abroad with suspicion, we should be pleased that our region is considered a worthwhile location to invest in, particularly at a time when the UK economy is struggling.
“The data show that bidders from buoyant economies like China, India and Turkey invested in the North West during 2012.”
He said it was “encouraging” to see a number of North West firms were active in the emerging BRIC economies, Brazil, Russia, India and China, during 2012.
Europe remained the largest region with 44 per cent of deals done on the continent with seven deals (13 per cent) with the United States, three with India and Japan and two with the United Arab Emirates.
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