INTERNATIONAL - Shareholders in the UK arm of Unilever have voted in favour of unifying the company’s headquarters in the UK, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
The vote is set to be announced at a shareholder meeting Monday and was widely expected to go through after more than 99 percent of the Dutch arm’s investors approved the plan last month. The decision effectively ends the Dove soap owner’s dual nationality and advances a plan to streamline a cumbersome structure that has complicated major takeovers and disposals. A Unilever spokesman declined to comment.
The owner of Knorr stock cubes and Axe shower gel has maintained twin bases since the 1930 merger of Margarine Unie of the Netherlands and UK soapmaker Lever Brothers. It began moving to unwind that structure after an unsolicited takeover approach from Kraft Heinz Co. in 2017.
The move to a single headquarters has prompted speculation that Unilever would step up merger-and-acquisition activity. The company has mounted a strategic review of its tea business after selling its spreads unit and acquiring consumer health brands in South Asia from GlaxoSmithKline.
The vote hands a win to Chief Executive Officer Alan Jope after the company withdrew a proposal to unify its business in the Netherlands under his predecessor, Paul Polman. That reversal came after UK stockholders rebelled against the company’s potential exit from the FTSE 100 index.
The final count of the vote has yet to be announced.
Unilever’s streamlining plan still faces a potential hurdle in the form of a so-called departure tax proposed by the Dutch opposition Green Party. The company has said the plan would make a move to London prohibitively expensive, but the legislation is in the early stages.
The proposal would breach European Union laws on freedom of establishment and free movement of capital, and would contravene the UK-Netherlands tax treaty, Unilever has said.
BLOOMBERG