Top investor tells Unilever to stay in UK

UNILEVER’S plans to leave the UK were in further doubt last night as opposition to the move intensified.

Another major investor has come out against the consumer goods giant’s plans to axe its British HQ and base itself solely in the Netherlands.

Royal London Asset Management, which owns more than 0.7 per cent of Unilever shares on the London Stock Exchange, said it will vote against the proposal at a crunch meeting later this month. They will join a string of other big City names which are against the move.

Meanwhile, leading shareholder advice group Pirc urged all investors to oppose the plan and said the Unilever board has been ‘short-sighted’.

And analysts at investment bank Jefferies warned that if the change goes ahead, it could trigger a £1.2billion fire sale of Unilever shares in the run-up to Christmas – sending the stock down sharply.

The sell-off would be triggered by Unilever crashing out of the FTSE 100 index, because only British firms can be included. Many large pension schemes and fund managers are only allowed to hold shares in FTSE businesses, meaning they would have to sell their stock at any price.

M&G Investments, Columbia Threadneedle, Legal & General Investment Management and Lindsell Train have already taken the unusual step of publicly voicing opposition to the move.

Mike Fox, head of sustainable investments at Royal London, said: ‘We think that Unilever is a high quality company... and have decided to vote against the upcoming resolution.

‘Should the motion succeed, we would be forced to sell our holdings in Unilever plc across a number of our funds, something we do not believe would be in the interests of our clients.’

Pirc said: ‘The affected holders are likely to be some of the longest-held shares - and the board has been short-sighted to presume that they have no voice.’

If Unilever gets its way, it will drop out of the FTSE 100 by Christmas Eve.