Kerry shifts assets to Luxembourg to cut tax bill
Luxembourg has a variety of special incentives available to multinationals to encourage them to set up shop there, according to publicly available documents from Deloitte for potential investors. The co-op is a 17 per cent stakeholder in the group and nominates seven directors, though this will fall to four by 2014. Meanwhile, there was significant shareholder opposition against Kerry's long-time director and chairman Denis Buckley and several other board members at its annual general meeting last week. Kerry, the firm added, was looking at a number of potential investments in Ireland in the coming year. A source said the likely rebel voters were non-domestic institutional investors, acting on corporate governance advice, adding that it represented an objection to Buckley's long-term presence as well as the co-op's influence on the board. It shares its address with 36 other global multinationals, some of which are already taking benefits of Luxembourg's favourable tax regime. Kerry's new subsidiary is revealed for the first time in its recently published 2011 annual report. "In our view these directors are deemed to be independent," Kerry Group company secretary Brian Duran said. |