Netherlands firms ready to go

More than 10 companies listed on Euronext, the Amsterdam stock exchange, are considering a move from the Netherlands.

Speaking to De Telegraaf, Ingrid Thijssen, chair of the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW), confirmed that “a lot” of listed companies were contemplating a move.

“You need at least two hands to count them,” she said.

Companies were concerned about the Netherlands’ business climate, with the likelihood of more taxes and restrictions on immigrant labour, Thijssen added.

She declined to name the companies, but ASML, a world leader in manufacturing chip-making machines, announced recently that it would inevitably look outside the country for future growth.

The company, which had a record turnover of €27.6 billion in 2023, is unimpressed by the government’s intentions of limiting the number of foreigners allowed to work in the Netherlands, as approximately 9,000 of ASML’s 22,860 employees in the Netherlands are not Dutch.

“We can only grow this company if there are enough qualified people,” ASML’s chief executive Peter Wennink said during an RTL Z interview in January.

“But if we cannot get those people here, we will get them in Eastern Europe, Asia or the US.”

Boskalis, a dredging company, revealed on March 7 that it intended to relocate part of its headquarters to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates).

The list of companies preparing to leave was getting longer, Thijssen said, describing the situation as “very worrying.”

Like Wennink, Henk Volberda, professor of Strategy and Innovation at the University of Amsterdam, foresaw a future shortage of “highly-knowledgeable” workers from outside the country.

Combined with moves to teach university courses entirely in Dutch, Volberda was quoted in the media as saying that the business community faced an “accumulation of financial deterioration.”