LONDON: Unilever scrapped plans to move its headquarters to the Netherlands on Friday in the face of a British shareholder revolt, keeping one of the country’s most valuable companies in London ahead of Brexit.
The climbdown comes three weeks ahead of a vote on the plan and is a significant victory for UK shareholders big and small who opposed the move, which would have kicked the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream out of the benchmark FTSE 100 index.
“We are pleased they have abandoned the plan to ‘go Dutch’,” said GAM portfolio manager Ali Miremadi, who was planning to vote against the move. “Now the company can put its focus into the core job — driving long-term shareholder value.”
Shareholders representing about 12 per cent of Unilever had publicly opposed the move, concerned about the effective forced selling of their shares with no premium, uncertainty around the future tax treatment of Dutch dividends and a perception that the move was partly aimed at securing greater takeover protection under Dutch law.
Unilever decided to collapse its Anglo-Dutch structure following a deep business review sparked by last year’s failed $143 billion takeover approach by Kraft-Heinz. The stated aim was to make it more efficient and agile in a consumer market that is changing fast. But on Friday Unilever said it recognised that the proposal had not received support from a significant group of shareholders and therefore it was appropriate to withdraw it.
“The board will now consider its next steps and will continue to engage with our shareholders,” Chairman Marijn Dekkers said. — Reuters
Dutch PM faces fallout
AMSTERDAM: Unilever’s withdrawal of plans to move its headquarters to Rotterdam looked likely on Friday to trigger political fallout for Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte over his unpopular proposal to scrap a withholding tax on dividends.
Rutte, who worked for Unilever from 1992-2002 before entering politics, had yet to respond to the news.
But he will be bracing for a barrage of questions at his weekly press conference later in the day over whether the 15 per cent dividend tax — earmarked for removal in theory to attract foreign investment — will now be retained after all.
While doubts have grown in recent weeks among dual-listed Unilever investors over the wisdom of the move to a sole HQ in the Netherlands, Rutte has been fighting an increasingly lonely battle in favour of scrapping the tax. — Reuters
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