Specialty chemicals group DSM has confirmed it will move its headquarters to Maastricht after all, despite the row about subsidies which had threatened to derail the plan.

In addition, the company said it would not accept €3.5m in subsidies which had been promised by the city and Limburg province to help pay for the redevelopment of its new HQ location.

Dimitri de Vreeze, one of the company’s joint chief executives, said he understood and regretted the commotion.

‘I have been working at DSM for 30 years now and I am proud of DSM with its roots in Limburg,’ he said. ‘That is why I was so pleased that we could announce that we are going to build the head office in Maastricht and thus remain in the south Limburg region. We stand by that decision, but have decided to waive the subsidies offered.’

The company said in July that the subsidy options offered by the municipality and province were partially decisive the decision to move to Maastricht. That statement was made after the province called the subsidy package into question.

DSM booked net profit of just over €1bn in the first six months of this year, including a book profit of €567m from divestments and described the period as ‘very good’.