Informa chief Stephen Carter reportedly swaps UK residency for the UAE

The company says the decision is business related

Stephen Carter, chief executive of Informa. Supplied

Stephen Carter, the chief executive of British publishing company Informa, has reportedly moved his residency to the UAE, joining the departures from the UK to the Emirates among the wealthy and working age.

The move, first reported by the Financial Times on Friday, means the former aide to British prime minister Gordon Brown will now be running the London-listed company from the Emirates.

Moving to the UAE is likely have tax advantages, although the FT report did not make clear what other perks the decision will grant to both the company and the media executive, who is entitled to sit in the UK House of Lords as Baron Carter.

British media have reported that the move was business related. Finance website This is Money, quoting an Informa representative, said that the company “has grown fourfold over the last decade, becoming an increasingly international business”.

“The operating management are spending their time where the market is and where the growth is,” the representative added.

The Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, reported that the expansion and growth of Informa has “increasingly prevented” Lord Carter from attending and contributing in the House”.

“Although Lord Carter had a prior leave of absence, the recent expansion of Informa – combined with now working and living outside the UK for the foreseeable future – made it a sensible decision to step down from the House to concentrate on further growth of the business,” it added, quoting an Informa representative.

The UAE – which has some of the most business-friendly regulations globally – has been the most popular destination for wealthy people leaving the UK, analysis of figures compiled in recent months show. And the numbers leaving have been rising.

A look into the number of company directors changing their address this summer showed 3,790 reported to be leaving, compared with 2,712 over the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, with the budget deficit rising and the tax net catching more areas of income and wealth, thousands have moved out of the UK in recent years.

FinTech magnate Nik Storonsky of the bank Revolut was revealed to have shifted his residency to the UAE last month.

The departures seem bound to raise questions about the effects of tax reforms on the country’s wealthiest residents. The Treasury has defended its new regime ending non-domiciled status for internationally committed residents. The Government has faced demands for a wealth tax from its rank and file.

Prominent leavers reportedly included Nassef Sawiris, the Egyptian tycoon; Shravin Bharti Mittal, the Indian businessman; John Fredriksen, the Norwegian-Cypriot shipping magnate; and Richard Gnodde, the South African-born vice president of Goldman Sachs.

Mr Fredriksen, who told a Norwegian newspaper that Britain had “gone to hell”, was said to be putting his £250 million ($332 million) Chelsea mansion – The Old Rectory – on the market.