The Dutch have kick-started a battle to try and win a float for Unilever’s ice cream business.
The Netherland’s minister of economic affairs, Micky Adriaansens, will meet with the consumer goods giant’s Dutch chief executive Hein Schumacher as he mulls where to list the £15billion spin off.
Adriaansens will make the case for the Ben & Jerry’s and Wall’s maker to list on Amsterdam’s stock market. But ministers and City grandees have been urged to talk up the merits of the London Stock Exchange with Unilever to make a decision over the next 18 months.
The Dutch believe Schumacher’s remarks that he is ‘open to all options’ for a listing are a ‘positive signal in line with previous commitments,’ a spokesman for the Dutch ministry said.
‘We are and will remain in discussion with Unilever on this.’
Sweet: Unilver boss Hein Schumacher and Dutch minister Micky Adriaansens will meet to dicuss the ice cream float
The Dutch are confident they can win the highly-sought listing after assurances Unilever gave the government four years ago.
In 2020 Unilever went ahead 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 should ever choose to list the foods and refreshment division as an independent company, it would be incorporated and listed in The Netherlands’. In 2022, the division was split into two parts, nutrition and ice cream.
The Treasury refused to confirm whether any ministers would meet Unilever executives or if they had been in contact.
But it made clear London was one of the premier stock markets, with deeper pools of capital than Amsterdam. City minister Bim Afolami said: ‘The UK continues to be the leading hub for investment in Europe, raising more capital than Amsterdam and Frankfurt combined in 2023, and we want to encourage firms of all sizes to list in the UK.’
He added: ‘We have developed reforms to boost the UK as a destination for IPOs [initial public offering], including making it easier for companies to list more quickly.
‘We are also reforming our capital markets to deepen the capital pools and improve liquidity in the market.’ But prominent figures have demanded that ministers and City bosses launch an aggressive charm offensive to clinch the listing.
Baroness Altmann, a pensions minister under David Cameron and Theresa May, said more should be done.
She told The Mail: ‘There is such an urgent need for us to do all we can to revive the UK financial markets. Our own pension funds should be leading the charge to invest more here but they seem to have deserted their traditional role.
‘Having a listing in London should be much more promoted than it is right now.’
There are fears London could lose out either to Amsterdam or New York’s stock markets or a private equity predator.
This would rub salt in the City’s wounds as it suffers an exodus of companies to markets elsewhere.
The UK was also snubbed when Cambridge chip maker Arm chose to list in the US despite ministers rolling out the red carpet.
