Another big shareholder opposes Unilever's Dutch plan

Reuters

Published Sep 28, 2018 10:45AM ET

Another big shareholder opposes Unilever's Dutch plan

LONDON (Reuters) - Another top-10 Unilever (L:ULVR) (AS:UNc) shareholder declared its opposition to the group's proposal to base a new single headquarters in the Netherlands, becoming the fifth big investor to publicly criticize the board's plan.

Legal & General Investment Management, one of Europe's largest asset managers, on Friday said it intended to vote against Unilever's proposed move next month.

"We understand Unilever has explored a number of alternatives in reaching its final decision. However, we do not believe Unilever has made a compelling case for many PLC shareholders to support the recommendation in favor of Dutch incorporation," Sacha Sadan, director of corporate governance at LGIM, said in a statement.

LGIM is the sixth-biggest shareholder in Unilever PLC, with a 1.98 percent stake, according to Reuters data. The group has total assets of 984.8 billion pounds ($1.28 trillion) under management.

It follows Lindsell Train, Columbia Threadneedle, M&G Investment Management and Aviva (LON:AV) Investors Global Services in voicing dissatisfaction with the proposal. Together, the five investors control 7.41 percent of Unilever's UK-listed shares.

In order for the proposal to pass, it needs approval from a majority of shareholders, who control at least 75 percent of the UK shares. It only needs approval from 50 percent of the Dutch shares.