Dyson has also made his irritation with British corporate governance rules known before. Last year, he complained about the UK requirement that closely held companies file publicly available accounts – a regulation that hands an advantage to overseas rivals, he told the Financial Times in an interview.
There are, though, plenty of positive reasons why he might plump for Singapore. After giving the world the bag-less vacuum cleaner, Dyson is investing 2 billion pounds ($3.5 billion) to roll out his own electric vehicle by 2021. He was already preparing to build the car in Singapore, adding to the manufacturing facilities his company already has in the city state.
Singapore’s regulators, too, have actively sought to woo developers of autonomous cars. What’s more, it already has a free-trade agreement with China – Dyson’s biggest addressable market.
The entrepreneur’s move, then, is less about how Brexit risks making Britain less competitive, and more about how the world’s centre of economic and technological gravity is shifting inexorably toward Asia.
Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.
