GungHo denies talk of move to Finland

GungHo has denied recent rumours that it’s planning to move its headquarters to Finland, despite the recent comments by company president Taizo Son that it was considering it.

Son was recorded by The Wall Street Journal as saying the Puzzles & Dragons developer would “like to move” its headquarters to the Scandinavian country to take advantage of the lower taxes and start-up scene.

His comments made some sense considering the recent acquisition of Finnish Clash of Clans developer Supercell and the remarks of his brother Masayoshi Son – president of GungHo parent company SoftBank – that his company’s gaming efforts would center on Helsinki.

Now the company has issued a statement to The Wall Street Journal denying it has any plans for such a move.

"There was a report dated today concerning a move of our headquarters to Finland, but we have no concrete plans to move,” said a representative of GungHo.

Spokeswoman Kimiyo Ichimatsu put it in starker terms, saying that while Taizo Son might be gunning for a relocation, it wasn’t an opinion shared by his company.

"We are not considering moving our headquarters to Finland," she said.

"We are not denying that the chairman said as much, but as a company, we are not considering a move."

There hasn’t been much explanation for why the company president would speak so enthusiastically about a move only to have his company publicly denounce the idea.

Son himself told Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Friday [translated by WSJ] that the move “is not a real option.

“I was just praising Finland’s economic-development policies and lowering the corporate tax rate for being helpful to start-up phase companies," he said.