Panasonic to move European HQ to Amsterdam because of Brexit

Thomson
Reuters

• Japanese electronics giant Panasonic to move European
  headquarters out of the UK as a result of Brexit.
• New HQ will be based in the Dutch capital,
  Amsterdam.
• The move is being undertaken “to avoid potential tax
  issues” linked to Brexit, according to Japanese media
  organisation Nikkei.
• Panasonic’s announcement follows a warning from the
  Japanese business lobby that companies are “seriously
  concerned” about continuing Brexit uncertainty.

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Panasonic, the £55 billion ($71 billion) Japanese electronics
giant, has announced plans to move its European headquarters out
of the UK as Brexit uncertainty continues to weigh on the minds
of major international corporations using Britain as a base.

The company, best known for its televisions, hi-fi systems, and
cameras, said on Thursday that it plans to shift its main
European office from near London to the Dutch capital, Amsterdam.

Japanese news agency Nikkei reported that the move is being
undertaken “to avoid potential tax issues” linked to
Brexit. Effectively, if the UK lowers corporate tax further after
Brexit, as it has suggested could happen, it could be considered
by the Japanese government to be a tax haven.

If that were the case, it could lead to Panasonic facing
back taxes from central government, aimed at discouraging
Japanese organisations from having offices in tax havens.

“We will move our European headquarters to the
Netherlands,” a spokesperson for Panasonic told AFP, confirming
Nikkei’s earlier report. The move will take place in October, and
has been under consideration for more than a year, Laurent
Abadie, Panasonic Europe’s CEO told Nikkei.

In terms of staff numbers, Panasonic’s UK office — which is
based in Bracknell, about 30 miles from London — has around 30
staff,
according to the Daily Telegraph. “Around 10 to 20 employees
dealing with auditing and financial operations” will be moved,
the newspaper said.

The announcement of Panasonic’s headquarters move comes
just days after the head of Japan’s biggest business lobbyist
said that Japanese businesses are “seriously
concerned” about their future in the UK if Brexit uncertainty
is not addressed imminently.

“We just can’t do anything. Everyone is seriously
concerned,” Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of Keidanren, the
Japanese business federation, said
in an interview with the Financial Times published on
Tuesday.

Nakanishi told the FT that Japanese businesses operating in
the EU are frustrated — like many UK businesses — by the lack of
any real clarity over what sort of Brexit the UK will actually
achieve when the Article 50 period runs out in March next
yar.

“Various scenarios get discussed, from no Brexit to plunging into
Brexit without any kind of deal at all. We’re now in a situation
where we have to consider what to do in all of them,” Nakanishi
added.

Several major Japanese financial institutions,
including Nomura, Sumitomo Mitsui and Daiwa Securities, have
already made plans to move staff away from the UK, and more could
follow.

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