Decision is blow to London stock market but Unilever boss denies move is ‘a snub to the UK’. Business live – latest updates. Unilever has chosen Amsterdam for the primary listing of its split-off ice- creams business, in the latest blow to the London stock market. While the owner of Marmite, Dove and Ben & Jerry’s said the ice-cream business would also have secondary listings in London and New York, it will be incorporated, headquartered and have its primary listing in the Netherlands.
“This decision follows a full review by the board of separation options, focused on maximising returns for shareholders, setting the ice-cream business up for success and execution certainty by the end of 2025,” Unilever said in a statement on Thursday. It comes after companies such as the Paddy Power owner, Flutter, and the travel company Tui announced plans to switch their primary listings from London to rival hubs such as New York and Frankfurt last year. Ashtead Group, the £27bn construction rental company, also revealed in December that it planned to shift its primary listing to New York.
Meanwhile, London has lost out on blockbuster IPOs including that of the UK chip designer Arm, which opted to list on Wall Street in August 2023. The buy now, pay later company Klarna followed suit. However, Hein Schumacher, the boss of Unilever, denied the move was “a snub to London at all or to the UK”. He said choosing the Netherlands as its primary listing was about saving costs for shareholders as the ice-cream business already had its main headquarters, manufacturing base and brand IP based there, adding: “We are very committed to the success of the UK and will invest significantly in the next couple of years.”.
Schumacher said the UK government’s decision last year to indefinitely postpone plans to put “not for EU” labels on meat and dairy products sold across Britain had protected jobs at its ice-cream factory in Gloucester. Schumacher added that changes to national insurance contributions and the legal minimum wage – which retailers have said will lead to higher costs from suppliers – were part of “more normalised” inflation.
He warned consumers could expect to pay more for certain products, such as ice-cream, because of cost increases on commodities including palm oil, cocoa and dairy, but said the group was “going to be very careful on pricing going forward” and there would not be “price increases across the board”. He pointed to the introduction of bite-sized Magnum Bon Bons last year as an example of the group’s efforts to offer more affordable options where costs had risen.
Unilever’s London-listed shares sunk 7% in early trading, making it one of the worst performers on the FTSE 100 and putting it on track for its worst trading day in three years. Sign up to Business Today. Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning. after newsletter promotion. It came as the company said it was expecting a slower start to 2025, with underlying sales growth of 3% to 5%. Underlying sales in the year to December rose 4.2%, just shy of forecasts for 4.3%.
Unilever first announced plans to spin off its ice-cream business in March 2024, as part of a major restructuring programme rolled out by Schumacher that involves cutting 7,500 jobs, more than half of which have already gone. The listing will separate a division that makes five of the world’s top-selling 10 ice-cream brands, including Wall’s, Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s. It also makes Cornetto, Viennetta, Carte d’Or and Breyers, which is big in the US.
