Chemicals tycoon set for Monaco relocation
THE billionaire owner of a Runcorn chemical company Inovyn is reported to be leaving the UK to live in Monaco.
‘Britain’s richest man’ Sir Jim Ratcliffe is upping sticks to the principality but the reasons remain unknown, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The industrialist was named by The Times earlier this year as having increased his fortune to £21.05bn.
Sir Jim is chief executive and owns a majority stake at Ineos, the parent company of Inovyn, which has a major chlorine operation in Weston Point and is also the prime customer for energy from the neighbouring energy-from-waste plant.
An article by Telegraph energy editor Jillian Ambrose said the exact reasons have not been revealed, but that Monaco is well known as a tax haven. It said that two other senior Ineos executives, Andy Currie and John Reece – also members of the Times Rich List top 20, are also expected to make the move, while Ineos will remain ‘headquartered’ in London.
The Independent reported that Sir Jim, 65, was moving despite being an ‘ardent Brexiter’, having previously said the UK would be ‘perfectly successful’ outside of the European Union (EU), with comments published in the Financial Times in 2015 from Mr Ratcliffe in which he said that ‘the Brits are perfectly capable of managing the Brits and don’t need Brussels telling them how to manage things’.
He is also a major backer of fracking and is now diversifying his interests, having bought Belstaff in order to develop a successor to the Landrover Defender. Various news outlets reported in June that Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich had refused a bid from Sir Jim to buy the club.
The Times reported that Ineos moved its headquarters to Lausanne in Switzerland to slash its tax bill by an estimated £317.5m in four years, following a ‘falling out’ with the then Labour Government over a request for a VAT deferment.
However, the company returned in 2016, declaring in its company publicity materials that ‘INEOS IS BACK IN BRITAIN’.
The Times said Ineos had refused to comment on reports relating to whether Sir Jim and his executives were moving.
It is not known exactly where the petrochemicals tycoon is moving but it is likely to be a far cry from some of the streets in the vicinity of Ineos-related operations in Runcorn, such as Clarks Terrace, which faces the Runcorn incinerator and has been the source of allegations of excess steam from the plant. ●