Japan's NTT Considers International Headquarters in London

(Bloomberg) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Japan’s biggest telecommunications company, is considering London for its new international headquarters, according to a person familiar with the matter, even as the U.K. remains mired in Brexit uncertainty.

Though no decision has been taken, NTT sees the U.K. as the most attractive option because of London’s status as a global financial capital and the technology triangle it forms with the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, said the official, who declined to be named discussing plans that haven’t been announced. The Financial Times earlier reported NTT’s plan to pick London.

Attracting NTT to London would be a boost to the U.K., where the uncertainty surrounding the departure from the European Union has caused business investment to stall. Japanese firms including Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Panasonic Corp. have all scaled down their ambitions in Britain as the government struggles to craft a Brexit deal Parliament can accept.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt visited Japan on Monday, where he met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as company executives from NTT. Hunt told BBC Radio his aim was to reinforce the British government’s commitment to resolve Brexit as soon as possible.

NTT said last year it planned to set up a new international headquarters around July, but it hasn’t yet announced a location. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net;Grace Huang in Tokyo at xhuang66@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas Penny

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