This past week, the Sunday Telegraph, London, U.K., reported that Dublin, Ireland-based Smurfit Kappa Group is considering moving from Dublin to be a part of the London-based markets. Smurfit Kappa, the report noted, currently meets financial thresholds for being a part of the London-based markets.

 

Gary McGann, CEO of the paper packaging company, conceded that with Ireland as its base, Dublin’s 12.5% tax rate was attractive, but not a sufficient reason to prevent the company moving to a U.K. listing. "It is still considered optimal to be Irish-based, but the factors that would cause us to change would not be tax. They would be about business."

 

Smurfit Kappa was founded in 1934 as Jefferson Smurfit, with one packaging plant in Dublin. It floated on the Irish Stock Exchange in 1964 and was taken private in a management buyout by U.S. private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners in 2002. It merged with Kappa Packaging in 2005.