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Unilever Walk Out on the Plan of Relocating its HQ from London to Rotterdam

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    (FILES) In this file photo taken on June 05, 2015 shows the logo of Unilever at the headquarters in Rotterdam. The Anglo-Dutch food and cosmetics giant Unilever is to abandon its London headoffice to be grouped as a single entity in the Netherland's, it was announced March 15, 2018, in a blow to Theresa May's conservative government, which is struggling to convince companies to stay or come to the UK despite Brexit's uncertainties. Currently, Unilever, the maker of well-known products like Dove soap, Marmite and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, was headquartered in both London and Rotterdam. / AFP PHOTO / JOHN THYSJOHN THYS/AFP/Getty Images

    Unilever, which Martime and Dove soap, has dropped its plan to shift its headquarters to the Rotterdam, Netherlands after growing differences among votes of the shareholders and investors. The firm has HQ in both London and Rotterdam. However in March, Unilever was set to switch its British HQ as the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant moves to a sole legal home base in the Netherlands, Sky News reported on Wednesday, 14th March.
    The proposed plan was pending shareholder votes at the end of this month (September 2018). “We recognize that the proposal has not received support from a significant group of shareholders and therefore consider it appropriate to withdraw,” the company said in a statement. The plan has to go through two different polls- one in the Netherlands on 25th October, hinge on 50% of voting shareholders, and one in the UK on 26 October, hinge on 75% support. Unilever also acknowledged their inadequate support in their statement this morning.
    The decision to drop the Dutch relocation plan will have a major embarrassment to Unilever’s chief executive, Paul polmann who is Dutch, and the wider board. The company had started a searching for a descendant. Investment firms including Columbia Threadneedle, Janus Henderson group and Schroders had bucked the shift, which would have exterminated Unilever’s membership in U.K benchmark stock indexes. The move is a boost for the UK economy at a time while the company is grappling with Brexit uncertainty and some are switching jobs to continental Europe. However, investors said the move could force UK shareholders to sell their shares.
    >Tilova Sumaiya Khan

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