Thread by @uk_domain_names

Super-massive "realities of Brexit" thread. Jobs are going, investment is drying up, firms are moving assets to the EU27 or redomiciling. Contingency plans are being executed left and right. Meanwhile, Brexit has already cost us £billions. All happening NOW. #projectreality 1/110

Barden Corporation is closing down its Plymouth factory after 51 years, putting 400 jobs at risk, as its parent company Schaeffler shifts production to various sites outside the UK due to Brexit. 2/110
plymouthherald.co.uk/news/business/…

Pfizer - $100 million on Brexit prep: "Pfizer’s preparations are well advanced to make the changes necessary to meet EU legal requirements after the U.K. is no longer a member state, especially in the regulatory, manufacturing and supply chain areas" 3/110
investors.pfizer.com/financials/sec…

The Government has spent £4.2 billion pounds of taxpayer money on Brexit preparations (£2.2 billion in previous Budgets, plus an additional £2 billion in the most recent Budget.) Think of what else could have been done with that instead. 4/110
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

8 health providers have warned of medicine shortages in the event of a no-deal Brexit: "we do not believe that the current medicine supply plans will suffice, and we will have widespread shortages if we do not respond urgently." 5/110
…33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/upl…

HSBC announced in its 2017 annual report that it had incurred $28 million of "costs associated with the UK’s exit from the EU". 6/110
hsbc.com/-/media/hsbc-c…

Chubb (world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company) is redomiciling from the UK to France. It has already received permission from the french regulator, and aims to complete its move on 1 January 2019. 7/110
chubb.com/uk-en/brexit/

Schaeffler, a car parts company, is closing its factory in Llanelli, Wales, because of Brexit, affecting 220 jobs. The factory opened in 1957. The decision was described in the Welsh Assembly as "the tremor that will lead to the Brexit earthquake". 8/110
nation.cymru/news/schaeffle…

Columbia Threadneedle switched £6.2 billion worth of assets from UK domiciled funds to Luxembourg domiciled funds. 9/110
ftadviser.com/investments/20…

Standard Life reported having incurred £12 million of "Brexit related costs" in its 2018 half-year results report. 10/110
otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/sta…

Lloyd's of London (company with 15% of business done with EU27 counterparts) officially opened Lloyd's Brussels, its post-Brexit EU headquarters, in early November 2018. The new operation has 50 staff, and plans to service customers across the EU27. 11/110
insurancejournal.com/news/internati…

A ferry company has brought in 2 new ships, including the "Brexit Buster" ship Celine (600 truck capacity, world's largest short sea roll-on roll-off ferry). Idea is to bypass the UK and send freight directly from Ireland to Belgium and Spain. 12/110
irishtimes.com/news/ireland/i…

The annual cost to the NHS of securing all necessary visas and other documentation for its overseas staff post-Brexit (i.e. under the new immigration regime) is estimated at £490 million. 13/110
rcplondon.ac.uk/news/490-milli…

SwissQuote cancelled its expansion plans in London after Brexit, and instead bought a bank in Luxembourg. Chief Executive: "With the coming Brexit we needed to have strategic options and Luxembourg is a very good place for these." 14/110
reuters.com/article/intern…

Haulage companies face a lottery for scarce permits to continue doing business internationally post-Brexit, after the Government admits there are less than 10% of necessary permits available. Over 40,000 trucks chasing a few thousand permits. 15/110
ft.com/content/dd8a1c…

Bank of America has spent between $300 and $400 million preparing for Brexit, including establishing new subsidiaries in Paris and Dublin, moving staff etc. Final cost not yet clear as project is ongoing. 16/110
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Brexit is killing a crucial source of early-stage tech funding: "Funding for UK tech firms by the European Investment Fund (EIF) fell by 91 per cent during 2017 to €61.1m (£53m) compared with €708.8m the previous year." 17/110
inews.co.uk/news/technolog…

DEXEU (the Brexit Ministry) has spent over £100 million (estimated) on staffing costs since the referendum. That figure's just for the people in the department, and doesn't account for any other costs... 18/110
gov.uk/government/pub…

Insurer Hiscox spent US$15 million (£11.5 million) in preparations against a no-deal Brexit. 19/110
telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/…

A $15 billion hedge fund specialising in distressed debt is gearing up to profit out of Brexit chaos. (You just knew the vultures would be circling...) 20/110
bloombergquint.com/markets/marath…

The Government estimates that it will cost the chemicals industry £450 million to reregister chemicals under a post-Brexit regime. (That's just to replicate the status quo.) 21/110
publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ld…

So many firms are stockpiling food against the disruption of Brexit that a specialist cold storage company has now completely run out of room...
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-… 22/110

Recardio is halting clinical trials in the UK of a new heart drug because of concerns over Brexit, and drug approval regimes. 23/110
fiercebiotech.com/cro/recardio-p…

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the UK's richest person (and a Brexit supporter) decided to leave the UK for Monaco in mid-2018. 24/110
dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-…

Scotland Yard is having to spend £2.4 million on setting up a no-deal Brexit "safety net unit" after Government ignored its reasoned warnings over how Brexit would make the UK less safe. 25/110
theguardian.com/politics/2018/…

European Medical Agency (EMA), Europe's medicines regulator, is moving from London to Amsterdam. It used to employ close to 900 people in London. It's had to cut its short-term service offering as it will lose at least 30% of staff during the move. 26/110
pharmaphorum.com/news/ema-cuts-…

HSBC is transferring legal ownership of its Polish and Irish subsidiaries from the UK to its French unit. Another 7 group companies are likely to follow suit. 27/110
reuters.com/article/us-bri…

The Government has 7000 civil servants working on Brexit, plus Treasury funding for 9000 more. (Easy to imagine the mountains of red tape - and paper - they're generating as a result!) 28/110
gov.uk/government/pub…

New Look (fashion retailer) are closing a further 25 stores (85, up from planned 60 store closures) citing "significant headwinds and uncertainties, including Brexit". 29/110
bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Investment in UK renewables fell 46% year-on-year because of Brexit concerns. 30/110
edie.net/news/10/UK-dro…

Deutsche Bank moved about half its new euro swaps business away from LCH (UK-based clearing house) and onto Eurex (based in Germany) in August 2018. 31/110
risk.net/our-take/58310…

Broadcasters have begun to move licenses to EU27 countries, since channels licensed in the UK will no longer have the right to broadcast cross-EU after Brexit. Viacom and Viceland have secured licenses in the Netherlands. 32/110
tvbeurope.com/business/broad…

GSK Brexit prep spend: "We currently anticipate that the cost to implement these and other necessary changes could be up to £70 million over the next two to three years, with subsequent ongoing additional costs of approximately £50 million per year" 33/110
gsk.com/media/4751/ann…

Barclays is moving €250 billion of business to Dublin ahead of Brexit, making it Ireland's largest bank. It has already secured a huge gleaming new office building there in preparation. 34/110
irishtimes.com/business/finan…

Home Office private beta of EU citizen registration system took 2 weeks to process just 1,053 applicants (despite testing relatively "easy" batches of applicants). Full system will have to work 36x faster to cope with *3 million* people in 3 years. 35/110
gov.uk/government/pub…

Standard Chartered has applied to turn its Frankfurt branch into its EU subsidiary. It initially expected to move 20 jobs, but recently announced that more would go. 36/110
uk.reuters.com/article/us-bri…

The Customs Declaration Service (CDS) is a major new HMRC IT system meant to replace existing customs systems. Supposed to be ready by January 2019. Delays mean it won't be ready by Brexit Day. Old and new systems will have to run in parallel. 37/110
cbronline.com/news/brexit-it…

Daiwa Capital Markets established a new subsidiary in Frankfurt on 3rd September 2018 "so that Daiwa can continue to provide a full service to its EU-based clients post-Brexit." 38/110
uk.daiwacm.com/site-tools/bre…

Steris PLC, a company with $2.6 billion in annual revenue, has redomiciled its HQ from the UK to Ireland due to Brexit. 39/110
seekingalpha.com/filing/4225572

Veterinary drugs producer Dechra Pharmaceuticals decided to move ahead with its contingency plans for a hard Brexit in September 2018, at a cost of £2 million. 40/110
uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dec…

A major financial firm, CME Group's BrokerTec, is leaving London for Amsterdam because of Brexit, taking its $240 billion/day repo market with it. 41/110
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Marshall Wace, one of the biggest hedge funds in the UK, has obtained a license to run management companies in Ireland & plans to grow its Dublin presence as a protective measure against Brexit. (Its chairman and CEO donated £100,000 to Leave) 42/110
cityam.com/268888/hedge-f…

Hiscox are transferring some aspects of their business to Luxembourg, and expect the Part VII transfer to complete by 1 January 2019. "The Transfer will move £421.5m of liabilities (and the corresponding assets) from HIC to HSA." 43/110
hiscoxgroup.com/sites/group/fi…

Panasonic is moving its European HQ from the UK to Amsterdam (the legal aspects of the move were completed in October 2018, as the £200 million capitalised UK company was absorbed by Panasonic's Dutch entity). 44/110
techcrunch.com/2018/08/30/pan…

Volex PLC is looking for new arrangements for approx $7 million in sales: "We have already begun looking for an alternate dock on mainland Europe to take delivery of the half of sales destined for EU end customers." 45/110
lse.co.uk/regulatory-new…

AstraZenica estimates its Brexit-related costs at £40 million for duplicate drug testing requirements, and building up product stockpiles. 46/110
fiercepharma.com/astrazeneca-br…

The London Stock Exchange is implementing its hard Brexit contingency plans: "These contingency plans include incorporation of new entities in the EU27 and applications for authorisation within the EU27 for certain group businesses." 47/110
theguardian.com/business/2018/…

MS Amlin receives the green light to redomicile Amlin Insurance SE from the UK to Belgium. 48/110
insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/breaki…

Once we're out of the EU, we'll be cut out of the pan-EU transport strategy (which unlocks billions of euro in grants and other funding). Indeed, EU transport maps will be redrawn (policy-wise, not literally!) so that the UK doesn't appear any more. 49/110
eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…

The latest September 26 version of the UK Government's OFFICIAL list of remaining "Brexit Unknowns" runs to 63 pages. (That's despite the fact that its very first assumption is that we will get a Withdrawal Agreement.) 50/110
researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-…

Halford Group Plc stated in its FY19 interim results that: "The weaker pound since the Brexit vote has increased our cost of sales by a cumulative circa £40m by the end of FY18 compared to FY16." 51/110
lse.co.uk/regulatory-new…

A new work order for the "Galileo Control Segment" ground infrastructure monitoring the Galileo constellation of satellites was won by GMV Aerospace and Defence of Spain. Up until now, GCS had been provided by Airbus in Portsmouth. 52/110
esa.int/Our_Activities…

UK companies with a .eu domain name will no longer be eligible to renew them after Brexit, nor will they be entitled to register new .eu domains. This affects an estimated 300,000 domain registrations. 53/110
eurid.eu/en/register-a-…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says in its 2018/19 business plan that they "have identified total EU withdrawal demand [costs] of around £30m", and that part of that will have to be funded by raising the fees they charge firms. 54/110
fca.org.uk/publication/bu…

France's top banks are moving 500 jobs out of London due to Brexit. 55/110
financemagnates.com/institutional-…

Markel Corporation announced in July 2018 that it had been granted a license to establish an insurance company in Germany so as to be able to continue servicing EEA clients after Brexit. 56/110
markelinternational.com/intl/news/2018…

GoldCore opened Ireland's first institutional-grade gold storage vault in October 2018, anticipating that investors will want to move gold bars from London to Dublin due to Brexit. Initial target 0.5% of the $300 billion of gold bars held in London. 57/110
irishtimes.com/business/marke…

The UK Government spent £700,000 on the tables and chairs for an office in Leeds being set up to deal with Brexit. The office will be fully kitted out by the beginning of December, and 1,000 staff dealing with Brexit issues will be based there. 58/110
politico.eu/article/uk-spl…

DHSC wrote to hospitals about potential shortages of imported foods under no-deal Brexit: "Instructions will be given to major producers of patient meals to put in place contingency arrangements, to account for short supply of certain ingredients." 59/110
theguardian.com/society/2018/n…

In October 2018, the CEO of Mercedez-Benz revealed to Paris motor show attendees that the company had been investigating the prospect of building cars in the UK, but killed the project after Brexit. 60/110
independent.co.uk/news/business/…

Liberty Specialty Markets is redomiciling its insurance company from the UK to Luxembourg 61/110
libertyspecialtymarkets.com/press-releases…

The European Banking Agency (EBA) - the banking regulator for the EU - moved its operations from London to Paris, affecting 160 staff. 62/110
consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/re…

JPMorgan and other leading US banks are getting ready to shift over 250 billion euro in assets from London to Frankfurt. 63/110
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

British hauliers are already having to turn down contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds because of uncertainties surrounding a no-deal Brexit. 64/110
thesun.co.uk/news/7676717/b…

A hard Brexit may increase the price of Dutch plants by 50% due to customs delays, additional safety tests and red tape. But they can’t easily be replaced by increased UK production since 90% of shoots come from abroad. 65/110
politico.eu/article/dutch-…

XL Insurance Company SE (a company writing over £2 billion/year in insurance premiums) is redomiciling from the UK to Ireland in January 2019 due to Brexit (the Brexit connection is explicitly detailed in its annual accounts). 66/110
beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SE0000…

XTX Markets is establishing a new office in Paris for post-Brexit trade (it is keeping its London office). [Article in French] 67/110
usinenouvelle.com/article/la-pla…

The UK Government has spent £5.5 million keeping Manston Airport open in case it's needed as additional overflow lorry parking after Brexit. 68/110
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
parliament.uk/written-questi…

STM Life moving part of its business from Gibraltar to Malta to guard against the effects of Brexit. (Remember, Gibraltar will leave the EU the same time the UK does.) 69/110
internationalinvestment.net/brexit/stm-lif…

Corporate Sterling-denominated bond sales have slumped 34% this year, as companies put off investing in the UK due to Brexit uncertainty. 70/110
bnnbloomberg.ca/brexit-may-ris…

Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc is transferring approximately 6% of its insurance and reinsurance business to a new legal entity in Luxembourg, with the intention that the move be effective 1 January 2019. 71/110
rsagroup.com/support/brexit…

The UK Government is spending £92 million on a feasibility study to work out how it could build its own version of the Galileo GPS satellite network. Note that the money's purely for planning. It doesn't pay for any satellites, or space launches! 72/110
theregister.co.uk/2018/08/28/uk_…

Admiral Group is planning to transfer some of its UK business from Admiral Insurance Company Limited to an entity in Spain, Admiral Europe Compañía de Seguros, S.A, that was set on 20 December 2017. 73/110
admiralgroup.co.uk/our-business/c…

Credit Suisse is moving 250 jobs to Germany, Madrid and elsewhere in the EU27, including Luxembourg. [Article in French] 74/110
usinenouvelle.com/article/madrid…

Theresa May repeatedly cancelled national security meetings because of being overwhelmed by Brexit planning. 75/110
uk.businessinsider.com/theresa-may-na…

QBE Limited is reorganising the affairs of several of its group companies, using the Part VII mechanism, in order to be ready for Brexit. Follow the link for details of its plans to redomicile business to Belgium. 76/110
qbeeurope.com/qie-rnice-part…

AIG operates in Europe through a single legal entity established in the UK (with branches across Europe). They are restructuring their business because of Brexit, and moving all non-UK business to a Luxembourg entity (planned by December 2018). 77/110
aig.be/microsites/bre…

Jaguar Land Rover has opened a new plant in Slovakia (expected capacity of 100,000 cars/year by 2020) and has begun shifting car production away from the UK, partly as a response to Brexit. 78/110
autonews.com/article/201810…

DLA Piper opened a new office in Dublin. Evaluating the market for some time, but Brexit was tipping point: "Brexit had been the catalyst to take another look and was the additional dimension which tipped the balance of the Dublin business case." 79/110
legalbusiness.co.uk/blogs/dla-beco…

London-based Shadow Robot Company is outsourcing the bulk of production to Madrid after opening a new office there in response to Brexit. 80/110
uktech.news/news/british-r…

EasyJet spent approx. £4 million on Brexit preparations during the 6 months ending 31 March 2018. These involved setting up an AOC in Austria; most of the incurred costs were for the re-registration of aircraft. (See p30 of document at link below.) 81/110
corporate.easyjet.com/~/media/Files/…

Ferrovial (largest shareholder in Heathrow, owns Aberdeen, Glasgow & Southampton airports) moving its HQ from Oxford to Amsterdam. "The reason for the move is to maintain the group's international companies under the umbrella of [EU] legislation." 82/110
bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Arch Capital Group is planning to continue from Ireland certain underwriting operations that are currently carried out by its UK insurer and its Gibraltar insurer. 83/110
businesswire.com/news/home/2018…

Tokio Marine Group is using a "Part VII transfer" to redomicile business from two UK-based subsidiaries (Tokio Marine Kiln Insurance Limited, and HCC International Insurance Company Plc) to a Luxembourg entity. 84/110
tokiomarinekiln.com/about-us/brexi…

Aviva, the huge insurance company, is moving a portion of its client base from the UK to Ireland. It expects the transfer to get approval in January 2019, and be effective 1 February 2019. 85/110
rte.ie/news/ireland/2…

A £500 million data centre contract was awarded by the UK Government without a competitive tender process, because time was too short & it is needed as part of "critical national infrastructure". (Due to come online just 13 days before Brexit Day!) 86/110
cbronline.com/news/crown-hos…

Nomura is moving about 100 staff to a new Frankfurt office to use as a new trading hub servicing EU clients post-Brexit. They expect the move to be completed in early 2019. 87/110
itv.com/news/2018-08-0…

TP ICAP, the world's biggest interdealer broker, said its full-year earnings would be hurt by additional costs of about £10 million related to Brexit. It has chosen Paris as its EU headquarters post-Brexit. 88/110
proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news…

Scisys is seeking shareholder approval to redomicile its holding company from the UK to Ireland in order to: "protect shareholder value & mitigate the possible negative effects of Brexit on the Group's space business". 89/110
polaris.brighterir.com/public/scisys/…

Legal and General Investment Management has received regulatory approval for a new Dublin-based business unit. It is planning to use it to manage its Ucits and alternative investment funds domiciled in Europe. 90/110
moneymarketing.co.uk/lgim-readies-b…

De La Rue in Gateshead had to write off £3.7 million in costs after failing in its bid to secure the tender to print the infamous post-Brexit "blue passports". Production was outsourced overseas. 91/110
chroniclelive.co.uk/business/busin…

Morgan Stanley is growing its Paris team in parallel to transferring certain roles to Frankfurt, in the context of Brexit. In total, the moves affect over 200 staff. [Article in French] 92/110
usinenouvelle.com/article/morgan…

Bewleys, the Irish coffee group, incurred €11.9 million in costs preparing for a hard Brexit, including increasing its warehouse facilities, and expanding its roasting capacity in the UK. 93/110
irishtimes.com/business/retai…

Make Architects has blamed a slowdown linked to Brexit uncertainty for a round of redundancies that will see around 10 staff lose their jobs from a total team of 169. 94/110
bdonline.co.uk/news/make-blam…

Independent insurance firm Robus Group opened a new office in San Gwann in Malta to be able to offer British clients access to the EU27 after Brexit. 95/110
bay.com.mt/uk-insurance-f…

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust have stated they will reimburse their EU staff for the £65 cost of applying for settled status after Brexit. According to FOI information, they had 532 EU staff as of May 2017, so that's a burden of £34,580. 96/110
linkedin.com/company/lewish…

School meals provider Compass, which serves millions of meals a year, has said they may have to change menus, use alternative ingredients, and build up stockpiles as a result of Brexit. 97/110
news.sky.com/story/catering…

The M26 motorway will be completely closed every weekday night between 19 November 2018 and 21 December 2018 to prepare sections of it for conversion into lorry parking in case of Brexit disruption at the ports. 98/110
rha.uk.net/news/press-rel…

The port of Ramsgate could be expanded using £200 million of Government money in the case of a no deal Brexit, according to Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary. However, the actual upgrade work would take years. 99/110
thesun.co.uk/news/7725433/r…

Industrial distribution company Electrocomponents Plc is investing £30 million in stockpiling additional inventory in advance of Brexit Day. 100/110
uk.reuters.com/article/uk-bri…

Diploma (company that supplies Formula 1 components) has announced it is stockpiling some of its faster-moving production lines ahead of Brexit. 101/110
standard.co.uk/business/diplo…

British Standards Institution (BSI), largest certifier of medical devices in Europe by value, is opening a subsidiary in the Netherlands to give non-EU companies choice of UK or EU27 certification (most companies are expected to choose the latter). 102/110
thetimes.co.uk/article/safety…

London Stock Exchange is moving its European government bond trading platform (MTS Cash) from London to Italy, effective 1 March 2019. 20% of its 13.4 billion euros worth of daily trade will shift to Milan. 103/110
reuters.com/article/us-bri…

A.M. Best, the specialist insurance sector rating agency, established a new office in Amsterdam to be able to continue to provide ratings to be used for regulatory purposes post-Brexit. The new office became operational on 1 October 2018. 104/110
ambest.com/emea/brexit.ht…

Prior to 2016, less than 50 solicitors from England and Wales also registered in the Republic of Ireland. Since the Brexit referendum, the number registered in Ireland has risen to over 2,000 (11% of named solicitors). 105/110
breakingnews.ie/ireland/tsunam…

Premier Foods (makers of Bisto, Oxo & Mr Kipling) estimate their working capital will be depleted by £10 million as a result of the need to stockpile raw materials as a contingency before Brexit. 106/110
bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Barts Health NHS Trust is paying £65 cost for its EU staff to register for settled status post-Brexit by giving £85 extra in gross salary (the £65 is taxable). They employ 1,764 EU nationals, so that's an added burden of £149,940. Thanks, Brexit! 107/110
bartshealth.nhs.uk/news/support-f…

Finally, on a lighter note, Ladybird have "done" Brexit as part of their Ladybird for Grown-Ups series. The book brings together nostalgic classic paintings with some hard-nose, biting satire. Good early Christmas present, e.g. Secret Santa? 108/110
amzn.to/2RbT3e9

"Always leave them wanting more" - PT Barnum
I had about a dozen more examples on my list, but they were all insurance and financial companies, so it was getting repetitive. Take it as read that most major banks and insurers are taking evasive Brexit action. 109/110

Thank you for reading this far. It's a massive thread, but a very necessary one, as both the Government and the Opposition appear to be asleep at the wheel, and all flavours of Brexit are officially going to make the UK poorer. Please retweet, and help spread the word. 110/110