Goodbye Bermuda, hello London, says Veon on the move - Capacity Media

2h | Alan Burkitt-Gray

Veon is moving its group parent company from Bermuda to London, saying it wants to be in “a jurisdiction with high standards of corporate governance”.

The company’s head office will remain in Amsterdam, and it will retain its share listing on the Euronext Amsterdam and Nasdaq exchanges.

It has already set up Veon Holdings PLC, with its registered office in St James’s Square in central London (pictured: Google Streetview). The listing gives its business area as “wireless telecommunications activities”.

Kaan Terzioğlu, CEO of Veon, is one of the directors of the new company, which was registered on 4 January. Another director in the listing is Paulus Theodorus Klaassen, who – as Paul Klaassen – is Veon’s group director of tax.

Veon chairman Gennady Gazin said: “Establishing our new group parent company in the United Kingdom is another positive step forward as we continue to evolve our group governance. This is particularly appropriate given the international nature of Veon and the current climate of tightening regulatory requirements across the globe.”

The company said in a statement that a UK registration will give it “a strong and transparent legal framework that is close to its operational headquarters in Amsterdam”.

It added: “The change of the place of incorporation of the top holding company is expected to enable Veon and its operating subsidiaries to operate more effectively across its markets, to best position the Veon group for the future.”

Veon shareholders will be asked to approve the move in a vote, and the company will need the permission of the Bermuda Supreme Court.

The statement added: “It is expected that such change will also provide the company with the necessary flexibility vis-à-vis current and future tightening of regulatory requirements in many of its markets of operation, including Russia, which recently introduced a new law introducing certain conditions for companies participating in Russian state and municipal procurement tenders or contracts.”

Veon’s biggest operating arm is in Russia, where it uses the Beeline brand. It uses the same name in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It is Kyivstar in Ukraine, and also operates as Djezzy in Algeria, Banglalink in Bangladesh and Jazz in Pakistan.

The address of Veon Holdings’ registered office is an upper floor at 11-12 St James’s Square. Ada Lovelace, known as the world’s first computer programmer, lived at 12 St James’s Square in 1837-1846, during which time she was working with Charles Babbage on his first – mechanical – computer. There is an English Heritage blue plaque to Lovelace between the basement and ground floor level,

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