Afflelou moves to UK for new opportunities

Alain Afflelou, the French boss of an international chain of opticians, is the latest multi-millionaire to leave France for Britain since the imposition of a Socialist super-tax on the country's wealthiest people.

Afflelou, worth an estimated £147m, denied that he was fleeing the 75 per cent tax rate (Daily Telegraph, December 20) and insisted he was moving to London because the company had a new British shareholder and wanted to seek new markets.

A spokesperson for the company told Optician that the UK was not excluded from the new markets the company was considering, while Bloomberg (December 24) reported that the move was for two to three years to work with new British shareholder Lion Capital and expand the chain in Northern Europe.