Unilever spreads Christmas gloom with plans to quit FTSE

It could be an unhappy festive period for some Unilever investors, with the consumer goods giant on Tuesday revealing it will quit the FTSE by Christmas Eve.

The maker of Magnum ice cream and Pot Noodles, which has been based in London and Rotterdam for nearly a century, first announced in March that it had picked the latter city for its sole legal headquarters.

Britain’s third largest company today said it will put the Netherlands move to shareholders in the Dutch and UK entities next month.

Subject to approval, the last day of trading in those two listings would be on December 21, with dealings in a new Dutch company starting on Christmas Eve.

The dates were published in a prospectus where Unilever’s chairman Marijn Dekkers outlined the benefits of a “simplification”. He said: “We believe our proposal will modernise and simplify our structure.”

Unilever thinks the move will make its governance more transparent and make it easier to take part in major acquisitions.

The firm will maintain a listing in London, but some shareholders in the UK think that exiting the blue-chip index, of which Unilever was one of the original members in 1984, will mean the stock is less likely to be included in UK managers’ portfolios.