Brexit-supporting British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, head of the Ineos group, has officially relocated to the tax haven Monaco, according to United Kingdom company records disclosed this week.
Ratcliffe’s residency there, which had been previously reported by British newspapers but not confirmed, was documented in filings for Hampshire Aviation, a private aviation company he is a director of, at Companies House.
The 67-year-old boss of petrochemicals firm Ineos and one of Britain’s richest men has often been labeled a recluse but has raised his global profile with recent forays into the world of sport with Formula One team Mercedes.
He made headlines in 2015 by publicly backing Brexit, a year before the referendum that led to Britain’s departure from the European Union, telling the Sunday Times that Britons “don’t need Brussels telling them how to manage things.”
The newspaper’s annual Rich List estimated his fortune at £12.2 billion ($15.5 billion, 13.3 billion euros) earlier this year, making him the 5th wealthiest person in the UK.
The paper reported last year that Ratcliffe’s move to Monaco, where it said 10 British billionaires and 408 UK business owners live, could cost the UK Treasury up to £4 billion.
Tax concerns led Ratcliffe to relocate the headquarters of his company to Switzerland back in 2010, before returning to London in 2016, saying he wanted to demonstrate his confidence in post-Brexit Britain.
Ineos has been in the news this year after saying it was looking to build the Grenadier car – billed as a successor to the iconic Land Rover Defender.
It had been due to produce the new 4×4 vehicle partly in Portugal and Wales, but said in July it was in talks to build it at a Daimler plant in France, provoking cries of betrayal in Britain. – Rappler.com
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