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Unilever is considering picking Amsterdam over London for a £13bn stock market listing of its ice cream division.
Chief executive Hein Schumacher said the Netherlands had a “good chance” of becoming the formal headquarters for the new business and Amsterdam led the race as the preferred location for a new listing of shares.
Mr Schumacher last week unveiled plans to spin off the ice cream business, which owns Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum and Wall’s, in a bid to simplify Unilever’s sprawling empire.
Mr Schumacher told Dutch TV on Sunday: “As a company we are now listed in London, 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, then the Netherlands has a good chance.”
The move may risk a fresh backlash from UK shareholders who previously rebelled over plans to shift the group’s centre of power to the Netherlands.
Unilever’s British shareholders rebelled against a 2018 proposal to make Rotterdam the group’s headquarters instead of London.
Former chief executive Paul Polman was forced to ditch the plan and keep the London HQ.
Unilever overhauled the business again in 2020 to create a single legal entity based in the UK, which won the backing of 99pc of shareholders.
The company had previously been comprised of two separate Dutch and UK legal entities, a hangover from its creation decades ago from Britain’s Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine maker Unie.
Mr Schumacher said he would involve shareholders in the decision-making process for the division.
“You have to test that with your shareholders,” he said of the Dutch listing proposal. “The Netherlands is high on the list.”
The new chief executive, who joined Unilever last year, said the Dutch listing would depend on how the business environment developed in the Netherlands.
“I don’t want to give a suggestion the Netherlands has an unreliable government. We have a great business climate in the Netherlands,” he said.
City analysts had long speculated that the ice cream unit would be the most likely spin off for Unilever. Keeping ice cream cold meant the business had its own cold storage supply chain, which fits uneasily with the rest of Unilever’s vast distribution network.