Change in billionaire’s country of residence disclosed in Companies House filing.
Nik Storonsky, Revolut’s billionaire co-founder, has officially changed his residency from the UK to the United Arab Emirates, according to filings at Companies House. The changes were posted on the UK’s official corporate registry on Tuesday as an update to Storonsky’s family company information. The official change of residence for Storonsky — who remains the largest shareholder in Revolut as well as its chief executive — comes at a key moment for Europe’s most valuable financial technology company, which is awaiting a fully fledged banking licence from UK regulators and is also considering where it might publicly list its shares.
The abolition of the UK non-dom regime — under which people resident in Britain but who asserted their domicile was overseas could avoid paying UK tax on their foreign income and capital gains — has caused a wave of wealthy individuals to leave for more tax-friendly regimes, including the UAE. Storonsky is in line for a multibillion-dollar windfall if he steers the fintech’s valuation to about $150bn, the Financial Times has previously reported. Its most recent fundraising round valued the company at $75bn.
Storonsky was born in Russia but renounced his citizenship after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and spends much of the year in the UAE. He co-founded Revolut in London in 2015 with Vlad Yatsenko, and the company has grown to have 65mn users globally. The Companies House filings show he listed his residence as England, where he was a British citizen, until October 16, 2024. The filings only state Storonsky’s residence and do not show his citizenship status.
A person familiar with the bank said in January that it was committed to its key decision makers being in the UK. Storonsky retains a home in the UK and will still work frequently in the country, according to a person familiar with the situation. Revolut declined to comment. Last year, Revolut secured a UK banking licence after a three-year back-and-forth with the Bank of England. However, the company remains in a “mobilisation” phase during which its banking division can only hold a maximum of £50,000 in deposits. Mobilisation usually takes 12 months, according to the BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority, but that date passed in July.
Revolut and the PRA have said that mobilisation is not a fixed period, and that it can take longer. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has sought to break the impasse between Revolut and the BoE by brokering a meeting. She was thwarted by BoE governor Andrew Bailey, who thought it would impinge on the body’s impartiality. Although Revolut has reaffirmed its commitment to the UK with the opening of a new London headquarters and a pledge last month to invest £3bn in the country, it has also been expanding its presence in the Gulf.
In September, the central bank of the UAE granted Revolut a “stored value facilities and retail payment services licence”, which will allow it to expand the services it provides in the country. Revolut plans to increase its hiring efforts in the UAE, and is also exploring plans to buy a bank in the country to accelerate its growth there. Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund Mubadala also has a stake in Revolut.
Source: Financial Times
