Heathrow airport's biggest investor Ferrovial has revealed plans to move its international holding company out of Britain – a day after the UK parliament backed a £16 billion extension to the hub.
The Madrid-based builder, which led a £10 billion takeover of the London airport’s owner in 2006, will domicile its non-Spanish assets in Amsterdam from next year as a legal safeguard against Brexit, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
The announcement came hours after lawmakers backed construction of a third runway at Heathrow in a late-night vote on Monday, giving the green light to a project that’s been held up for decades.
Ferrovial, which has reduced its stake in the airport to 25 per cent over recent years, said the timing of the announcement after parliament had signed off on the controversial growth plan was purely coincidental. The group gets 20 per cent of its revenue in the UK.
The move to Amsterdam will ensure that Ferrovial’s international holding company remains within the European Union once Britain quits the bloc next year and doesn’t involve any transfer of jobs, the infrastructure operator said.
Other companies have switched jurisdictions with Brexit looming, among them Anglo-Dutch consumer-products giant Unilever, which plans to consolidate its former dual headquarters in Rotterdam. – Bloomberg
