Nearly 100 companies move to Netherlands ahead of Brexit: Dutch agency

[AMSTERDAM] Nearly 100 companies have relocated from Britain to the Netherlands or set up offices there to be within the European Union due to the United Kingdom's planned departure from the bloc, a Dutch government agency said on Monday.

Another 325 companies worried about losing access to the European market are considering a move, the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency said.

"The ongoing growing uncertainty in the United Kingdom, and the increasingly clearer possibility of a no deal, is causing major economic unrest for these companies," said Jeroen Nijland, NFIA commissioner. "That is why more and more companies are orienting themselves in the Netherlands as a potential new base in the European market."

The businesses are in finance, information technology, media, advertising, life sciences and health, the NFIA said.

The Netherlands has been competing with Germany, France, Belgium and Ireland to attract Brexit-related moves.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who took office last month, has pledged to take Britain out of the European Union at the end of October with or without an exit deal.

REUTERS