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The company controlled by Jim Ratcliffe, the richest man in Britain, has received promises of tax breaks from EU governments, potentially worth hundreds of millions of euros since that the UK has decided to leave the union.
Subsidiaries and joint ventures of chemicals and plastics company Ineos received at least EUR 178 million in support in Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium and France, according to a Guardian badysis of data relating to State aid from the European Commission since July 2016.
The commission only provides ranges for the amount of aid granted, which means that the actual total amount could well exceed 300 million euros.
Ratcliffe, owner of 60% of Ineos, strongly criticized EU tax policy. He also intends to settle in Monaco for tax reasons.
According to the Sunday Times, Ratcliffe and other leaders of Ineos planned to bring between 1 and 10 billion pounds to the principality, which is not part of the EU, which would potentially deprive the British Treasury of 400 to 4 Billion pounds of income tax.
The majority of State aid to Ineos companies controlled by Ratcliffe took the form of tax breaks. Many of these have been linked to policies to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, as well as to tax breaks for large industrial users of energy.
Ineos has not responded to a request for comment.
This month, Ratcliffe sent an open letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, describing EU policies on environmental taxes such as "stupid".
The lion's share was given by Germany, which provided "tax benefits" or tax rate reductions of at least 174 million euros. Three of the stock exchanges have exceeded 30 million euros, but the European Commission has not been able to specify the maximum size of these tax breaks.
Belgium has granted 1.9 million euros to Ineos to offset the indirect costs of the EU emission trading scheme. France granted a single grant of 262,000 euros in July 2016.
The United Kingdom has awarded Ineos and Petroineos, a joint venture with PetroChina, which operates the Grangemouth refinery near Falkirk, between 2.3 and 5.8 million euros since the beginning of 2017, with a view to to benefit from discounts on eco-taxes paid on their energy bills. The companies may not yet have received all the State aid granted by the governments.
Ratcliffe's personal fortune has increased dramatically in recent years as Ineos's business has exploded. The Sunday Times Rich List estimated that his fortune had grown by more than 15 billion pounds in 2017, making him the richest of the British with a fortune of 21 billion pounds.
Ratcliffe has been working in the chemical industry for 38 years, according to the Ineos website. In 1992, he participated in the acquisition of BP's chemicals group, InSpec Group. He left in 1998 to buy his Antwerp site, creating Ineos.
The company, which employs 19,000 people worldwide, is a leading supplier of chemicals used in the manufacture of consumer products. Ineos is also very involved in the British fracturing industry. The company made profits of more than 2.2 billion pounds last year.
Ratcliffe, who was knighted in 2018, used his estate to finance various commercial interests, including the purchase of fashion brand Belstaff and the Swiss football club Lausanne-Sport in 2017.
Ineos is also about to choose between Bridgend in Wales or a number of sites in Europe as a site for a new all-terrain vehicle, inspired by the Land Rover Defender. Ratcliffe met with Premier Theresa May last week to discuss her plans for the vehicle, as well as the fracking policy, according to Sky News.
The parent company of Ineos, Ineos AG, is based in Switzerland after starting a transaction in 2010 aimed at saving 450 million euros by 2014 in money that would otherwise have been paid in British taxes.
Ineos has already benefited from hundreds of millions of pounds of support from the British government. In 2014, the company received a loan guarantee of £ 230m for the construction of a storage tank in Grangemouth. The site's petrochemical plant was threatened with closure in 2013, but was saved after Unite union agreed to radical changes in staff working conditions. In return, Ineos said it had invested £ 300 million as part of a long-term plant survival plan.
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