Private equity boss shrugs off non-dom clampdown as Reeves eyes tax hikes ahead of Budget

CVC boss Rob Lucas insisted that Britain remained ‘an attractive place for people to live and work and also for us to invest’

The boss of buyout firm CVC has shrugged off the impact of non-dom tax changes as he made clear that its staff can pack their bags and leave if necessary.

Rob Lucas said his firm was not worried about the ‘particular environment in any particular country’ as CVC has ‘people who move all the time around the globe’.

But his comments highlight the growing fear that the clampdown on non-doms – brought in under the Tories and widened under Labour – could backfire.

Recent analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) found that an exodus of non-doms – UK residents whose permanent domicile is abroad – could wipe billions off UK tax revenues adding to the Chancellor’s Budget headache.

Lucas said: ‘In terms of the non-dom situation, people these days are very, very mobile and whether that’s young people, whether that’s people more generally but particularly within the financial services world.

‘That’s just a feature of the world in which we live and people will move around.

‘We’re very used to that here at CVC. What happens within this does not impact us – we can thrive, we have people who move all the time around the globe.’

However, Lucas insisted that Britain remained ‘an attractive place for people to live and work and also for us to invest’.

The comments came as Amsterdam-listed CVC – whose UK assets include Six Nations rugby, the RAC roadside rescue business and PG Tips tea – reported an 8 per cent rise in net profit to £344million for the first half of 2025.

Realisations – cash earned from the successful sale of investments – totalled £11.4billion over the past 12 months, 20 per cent higher than last year’s level.

It comes amid signs that exits by private equity investors are picking up after years in which global uncertainty and high interest rates have weighed on dealmaking.

Meanwhile, Lucas said that fundraising for deals was seeing ‘a further boost from increased interest in Europe’.

He added: ‘The overall macroeconomic outlook remains pretty uncertain – with considerable market volatility as we’ve seen over recent times.

‘For us what we are finding in the current environment are some very interesting investment opportunities. It is often periods of time with uncertainty, levels of volatility, where we can find some of our best opportunities.’

However, markets were unimpressed with the results – sending shares 4 per cent lower in early trading.

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