Britain dangers dropping out on Unilever’s £15bn ice cream float

Tasteful: Magnum is promoted by model and actress Cara Delevingne

The UK risks losing a key multi-billion pound listing to the Dutch because Labour has not appointed an investment minister.

The warning came from former Barclays chairman Gerry Grimstone amid fears Amsterdam will win a battle for Unilever’s £15billion ice-cream business, which includes Magnum, promoted by model and actress Cara Delevingne.

Last night, Grimstone, who was investment minister between 2020 and 2022 and worked on trying to get chipmaker Arm to list in London, called on the Government to appoint someone who has the dedicated remit of encouraging inward investment into the UK. 

Labour had been set to hire Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, but he did not want to abandon his existing job running the Global Counsel advisory group he co-founded with Lord Mandelson.

‘It’s a difficult job, the person has to be familiar with Whitehall and able to manage investors,’ Grimstone said.

While Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been scrambling to find an investment minister, the Dutch have been busy wooing Unilever’s top executives.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that The Netherlands’ minister of economic affairs, Dirk Beljaarts, met the consumer goods giant’s Dutch chief executive, Hein Schumacher, last month.

He is thought to have encouraged Unilever in a video meeting on August 19 in an introductory conversation to list the £15billion spin-off on the Euronext exchange.

The Treasury refused last week to confirm whether City Minister Tulip Siddiq has met, or been in contact with, Unilever executives.

But Grimstone said such charm offensives were not in Siddiq’s remit.

Euronext said it was the number one listing venue for European companies but did not want to comment specifically on Unilever. The pan-European bourse hailed 34 listings this year, with £3.1billion raised.

By contrast, the London Stock Exchange won eight companies in the first half of 2024, raising £513.8million.

Schumacher said in July the group was ‘progressing at pace’ with demerging the unit behind ice-cream brands Wall’s and Magnum.

The Dutch are confident they can win the highly sought-after listing. This would rub salt in the City’s wounds as it suffers an exodus of companies to markets elsewhere.

Arm also eventually snubbed the UK when it chose to list in the US, despite ministers rolling out the red carpet.