Small Unilever investors can block HQ move

PRIVATE investors have the power to scupper Unilever’s plan to ditch its London HQ.

The consumer goods giant, whose brands include Marmite and PG Tips, wants to move its base to the Netherlands.

The Anglo-Dutch company needs the backing of investors holding 75pc of Unilever shares voting for the change to pass.

But it also requires a majority of voting shareholders to approve, regardless of how much stock they own. This means a single investor with a handful of shares has as much power as a large fund with billions of pounds in Unilever.

If enough private shareholders oppose the proposals, cooked up by Unilever’s Dutch chief Paul Polman, they will fail even if investors holding 75pc of the stock approve.

Unilever has 35,000 private investors and 8,500 institutional. The rules, in the small print of the 120-page document sent to shareholders, set the scene for a knife-edge vote next month. Cliff Weight, from shareholder group Sharesoc, said: ‘There is hope. If all the individual shareholders can be got together and mobilised, then they could stop this.’

The proposals have sparked a fierce backlash as Unilever would leave the FTSE 100, meaning tracker funds would have to sell their holdings.

It has already met with major opposition from institutional shareholders including David Cumming, chief investment officer for equities at Aviva.

He said: ‘I don’t see logically why any UK shareholder would support their decision to go Dutch, because there is no upside, only downside.’

Unilever is listed on the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges and says a move would let it compete effectively, give greater flexibility for portfolio change and strengthen governance.