Advertising firm WPP returns

Shareholders in WPP have approved the advertising giant’s plans to return to the UK, four years after it relocated to Dublin in a row over taxes.

The group is to set up a new parent company that will be domiciled in the UK for tax purposes but incorporated in Jersey.

Chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell blamed the so-called double taxation of overseas profits for the firm’s move to Ireland in 2008, but Chancellor George Osborne has changed the rules in a bid to encourage companies to return to the UK.

WPP said trading in its new parent’s shares is expected to start on 2 January if its plans are approved by courts in Jersey next week. Investors in media company UBM, which also relocated to Ireland in 2008, last month approved its move back to the UK.