Regus joins the rush of companies to quit UK

Regus's move follows this week's announced departures of asset manager Henderson and engineering group Charter, while insurer Brit on Wednesday said it was considering upping sticks.
Unlike the other businesses looking to leave entirely for tax reasons, Regus chief executive Mark Dixon partially blamed London's uncompetitiveness for the move.

"Sure, it's partly about tax, it would be wrong to deny it, but it isn't just that. We have to base ourselves in a place that is convenient to do business. Luxembourg is a very easy place to do business. It is a lot smaller than London for a start, and it has all the services you need. And just look at the cost of everything in London. Office rents, for example. It has the second-highest rents in the world."

His comments echoed criticisms about the ease of doing business in the capital from international firms. Kraft partly blamed the chaos of Heathrow and London's poor transport infrastructure for its decision to move its European headquarters from Kew to Switzerland.

Procter & Gamble and Colgate Palmolive recently opted to site their European bases in Switzerland rather than London, while Yahoo is in the process of upping sticks from its Shaftesbury Avenue headquarters to Geneva.

Google based its European operations in Zurich despite having several hundred staff in London. Other London-based businesses moving include video games maker Electronic Arts, which has taken its engineering headquarters to Zurich, and arch-rival SCi, maker of the Tomb Raider series, which is leaving Wimbledon for Canada.

Asked how London can stem the exodus, he said: "In the end, it comes down to London making sure it is attractive. It has to face up to the fact that the world has become a lot flatter and is much more competitive than it has ever been. As our business model proves, you can be based almost anywhere these days."

Dixon, a former hotdog salesman from Essex, kept out of the debate over the Government's taxation of multinational companies' overseas profits, saying: "This was a decision we have been looking at for more than two years."

However, pharmaceuticals giant Shire, United Business Media, Charter and Henderson have blamed the tax system for their moves overseas.

Part of what swung Dixon in favour of Luxembourg was that two non-executive directors appointed today live there. They are Lance Browne, vice-chairman of Standard Chartered (China), and Ulrich Ogiermann, president and chief executive of Cargolux, the cargo giant. Douglas Sutherland, formerly chief financial officer of Skype before it was taken over by eBay in 2005, is joining as a non-exec.

First-half profits rose 39% to £74.5 million.