Based on an investigation of 2015, the number and the cultivated area of agricultural companies with the majority of capital shares owned by supra-regionally active investors are assessed, as well as the number of acquisitions by this type of investors between 2007 and the first quarter of 2017. With the help of data available on-line, agricultural legal entities in ten East-German administrative districts are analyzed with respect to their current shareholders and changes in share ownership since 2007. Companies are categorized according to certain characteristics of shareholders, such as local residence, number of shareholders, family relationships, economic activities in different sectors, and capital majority. Results show that the importance of supra-regionally active investors differs greatly between the federal states. Since 2007, many companies which were so far owned by locally-settled shareholders have been taken over by external investors. At the same time, the ratio of land owned by legal entities has steadily increased. Therefore, the importance of agricultural company share acquisitions is rising compared with the agricultural land market which is regulated by law. Hence, this law is virtually losing its effectiveness.