Unilever's About-Face on London Base Leaves Polman in Limbo
- Shareholders had opposed plan for single Dutch headquarters
- Reversal is black eye for CEO, boost for Prime Minister May
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Unilever abandoned a plan to leave the U.K. for a single headquarters in the Netherlands after shareholders rebelled, torpedoing Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman’s vision of reshaping the company through dealmaking.
The about-face follows mounting opposition from fund managers at Columbia Threadneedle, Legal & General Investment Management, Schroders and other firms, which faced having to sell Unilever shares once the company dropped out of benchmark U.K. stock indexes. The company’s U.K.-listed shares fell as much as 1.1 percent.