British Firms Bolt For Netherlands Ahead Of Brexit

Courthouse News reports:

The Netherlands has seen a fivefold increase in British investments as the deadline approaches for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, according to the Dutch government. Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, wherein the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, British investment in Dutch businesses has increased sharply. The U.K. is set to leave the EU on Oct. 31.

In 2016, 14 billion euros ($15.5 billion) flowed across the North Sea for the purchase of Dutch companies, to set up Dutch subsidiaries and other investments.

That number more than doubled in 2017 to 35 billion euros ($38.7 billion) and, in the most recent figures available from 2018, more than doubled again, to 80 billion euros ($88.4 billion.) That’s according to new figures from the Dutch National Statistics Office, CBS. On top of the declining Dutch investment, 98 firms have relocated from the U.K. to the Netherlands since the Brexit referendum.