Unilever scraps Dutch HQ plan

Consumer goods giant Unilever has bowed to pressure from shareholders and abandoned plans to move its corporate headquarters from London to Rotterdam.

The group said that it was withdrawing a proposal to “simplify” its dual-headed Anglo-dutch legal structure, which would have seen its corporate base move to the Netherlands. It follows pressure from several key shareholders in recent weeks.

Those voicing their concerns included Royal London, Columbia Threadneedle, Legal & General Investment Management, Aviva Investors, Lindsell Train, M&G Investments and Brewin Dolphin.

Unilever said yesterday: “We have had an extensive period of engagement with shareholders and have received widespread support for the principle behind simplification.

“However, we recognise that the proposal has not received support from a significant group of shareholders and therefore consider it appropriate to withdraw.”

A spokesman for asset managementtradebodytheinvestment Association said: “The feedback from many of our members has been that there was no compelling reason for PLC shareholders to accept the proposed simplification in this form. They did not believe it would be in the long-term interests of their clients, and would have resulted in many shareholders being forced to sell their shares.

“We welcome the fact that Unilever has listened to the feedback from their shareholders and not pushed ahead with their plans. We look forward to engaging with the company on their future plans.”

Unilever has throughout insisted the move to Rotterdam was “nothing to do with Brexit”.

It also said at the time that its 7,300 workers in the UK and 3,100 in the Netherlands would be unaffected by the changes.