Yet another financial company currently based in the UK is considering plans to relocate its headquarters to other parts of Europe following the Brexit vote.
Preston-based life insurance firm Chesnara may move its headquarters to Amsterdam depending on the potential regulatory environment in the UK resulting from the Brexit negotiations,
Reuters reported.
“If things get bad, what we say is if it is more efficient and more appropriate for us to be based in Amsterdam, then we would,” Chesnara chief executive John Deane told the news agency.
“Our preferred structure is to stay exactly as we are, with our head office in Preston,” he added.
Deane said it is difficult to predict the regulatory changes that will arise from the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
He added, however, that Chesnara is immune to any passporting concerns since it currently has separate operations in the UK, Netherlands and Sweden.
Chesnara chairman Peter Mason also said that the Brexit move would not have a long-term material impact on the company’s business and financial model.
“The fact that Chesnara does not rely on European passporting arrangements… leads us to conclude that the business model will not be fundamentally affected by any potential regulatory changes in the UK,” Mason said in the company’s half-year financial report.
“From an operating perspective, all of our territories operate virtually autonomously and as such, there is no potential risk from any cross border trading constraints that Brexit may create,” he said.
Chesnara revealed that its latest financial results were driven by Brexit. IFRS pre-tax group profits only hit £0.2 million for the first half of 2016, a steep fall from £30.4 million in the same period last year.
The company said the massive profit decline is due to lower interest rates and the absence of gains from its acquisition of Dutch company Waard Group in 2015.
Despite the lower figures, Mason described Chesnara’s performance as “resilient” and that the outlook for the company “remains largely unchanged.”
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