Liberty Global shareholders approve move to Bermuda

Liberty Global’s shareholders have voted in faovur of changing the company’s jurisdiction of incorporation from England and Wales to Bermuda.

The international broadband and media group, which co-owns Virgin Media O2 in the UK, VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands and Sunrise in Switzerland and is majority owner of Telenet in Belgium, said that the change “facilitates value-enhancing transactions and reduces administrative burdens and expenses, while preserving strong accountability and corporate governance”.

The percentage of votes in favour of the move ranged from 88-95% of votes cast across each of the company’s three classes of stock.

The next steps for Liberty involve a set of legal and regulatory procedures that will include court hearings in England. The move is not expected to be completed until November of this year.

Liberty Global has previously said that the move will better align it with the US NASDAQ listing and the expectations of US shareholders, and allow it to avoid complex English corporate laws.

“We are pleased that shareholders strongly supported our proposal to change our jurisdiction of incorporation from England and Wales to Bermuda. The change in jurisdiction will make it substantially easier to plan and execute value enhancing corporate transactions – including buybacks, dividends, spin-offs, cross-border divestitures and acquisitions – while also reducing administrative burdens and expenses. We remain committed to our businesses in the U.K. and the rest of Europe with our market-leading customer services and products, extensive in-country employment and critical infrastructure investment,” said the company.