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Unilever’s boss has indicated that Amsterdam is ahead of London in the race to win the stock market listing of his £15 billion ice cream company.
Hein Schumacher, the consumer goods giant’s Dutch CEO, said the Netherlands has “a good chance” to host the division if it is spun off.
His comments came a week after he pitted the two stock markets against each other with the announcement that Unilever would spin off its ice cream business behind household names such as Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum.
Unilever – the fourth largest company on the London stock market with a value of £99 billion – has not yet decided where this division will list.
But Schumacher suggested that the Amsterdam stock market has a better chance than London.
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“The most likely route is a spin-off with a separate stock exchange listing and its own head office,” he says.
‘As a company we are now listed on the London stock exchange, the largest market for ice cream is the United States and we currently run the ice cream division from the Netherlands.
If I follow the most likely route, the Netherlands has a good chance.’
Schumacher, who took over from Alan Jope last year, said any decision on a stock exchange listing would be based on how attractive the business environment was.
‘The Netherlands ranks very high on all competition lists in this area. But we have seen some surprises in recent years,” he said, referring to changes in the tax system.
The Dutch are confident that they can achieve the coveted listing, after Unilever gave the government guarantees four years ago.
In 2020, Unilever continued with plans to simplify its structure and chose the UK as its official base.
But at the time, the Dutch government “asked for reassurance that if Unilever ever chose to market the food and beverage division as an independent company, it would be incorporated and listed in the Netherlands.” In 2022, the division was split into two parts, food and ice cream.
The Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Micky Adriaansens, is advocating that the Ben & Jerry’s maker go to the Amsterdam stock market.
And the Dutch believe Schumacher’s comments that he is “open to all options” for a stock exchange listing are a “positive signal in line with previous commitments,” a Dutch ministry spokesperson told the Mail last week.
Sophie Lund-Yates, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, has warned that a Dutch victory ‘would not be a good prospect for British policy makers’.
Britain was recently snubbed when Cambridge chipmaker Arm opted to go public in the US, despite ministers rolling out the red carpet in London.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has held talks with fast fashion label Shein about a possible London stock exchange listing.