Unilever abandons its Dutch resettlement plan

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Reuters

Unilever, which makes Marmite and Dove soap, has canceled plans to move its head office to the Netherlands after growing criticism from investors.

The company is headquartered in London and Rotterdam, but announced in March that it plans to have only one head office in the Dutch city.

But investors said the move could force British shareholders to sell their shares.

Unilever said it acknowledged "that the proposal has not received the support of a large group of shareholders".

However, the chairman, Marijn Dekkers, said that the board of directors continued to believe that the simplification of the Anglo-Dutch Unilever structure was in the best interest of the company.

"The board will now consider its next steps and continue to engage with our shareholders," the company said in a statement.

Fears of sale

Unilever's current two-headed structure has existed since 1930, when the Dutch company Unie margarine merged with the British soap maker Lever Brothers.

It is one of the largest companies in the UK FTSE 100 equity index, valued at around £ 124 billion.

The company – which also manufactures Pot Noodle and Ben & Jerry's ice creams – will now maintain its listing on the London Stock Exchange, a spokeswoman said.

According to UK rules, the proposed change would not have been allowed to become a member of the FTSE 100.

This worried investors in the company, who feared that the change would cause a selloff and cause the stock price to fall.

Last month, Aviva Investors told the BBC that this move could force UK shareholders to sell their shares and offered them "no potential".

Royal London Asset Management also criticized the plan. The company's head of shares, Peter Rutter, told the BBC this week that this decision would not benefit his UK customers and that Royal London would vote against the proposal.