In a surprise corporate overhaul which the Dutch government branded an “unwelcome surprise”, Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it would scrap its dual share structure and move its head office to Britain from the Netherlands, pushed away by Dutch taxes and facing climate pressure in court as the energy giant shifts from oil and gas. The company, which long faced questions from investors about its dual structure and had recently been hit by a Dutch court order over its climate targets, will also drop “Royal Dutch” from its name – part of its identity since 1907 – to become Shell Plc.
The Anglo-Dutch firm has been in a long-running tussle with the Dutch authorities over the country’s 15% dividend withholding tax, which Shell sought to avoid paying with its two share classes. Its new single structure would resolve that issue and allow Shell to strike swifter sale or acquisition deals.
“The current complex share structure is subject to constraints and may not be sustainable in the long term,” Shell said, as it announced its plan to change the structure. The move requires at least 75% of votes by shareholders at a general meeting to be held on Dec. 10, the company said. […]
In response to the effective divorce, the Dutch government said on Monday it was “unpleasantly surprised” by Shell’s plans to move to London from The Hague. The decision will, meanwhile, be seen as a vote of confidence in London after Britain’s exit from the European Union triggered a shift in billions of euros in daily share trading from the UK capital to Amsterdam.
Via reader Adrian, who comments;
But … they are sucking up to the “activists” and so history will repeat itself and I would imagine there are two outcomes longer term. First. Shell remembers that they are fundamentally a provider of hydrocarbons and gets on with it OR they become relegated to a history book along with the likes of ICI.
Ironically if they had left companies alone like Enterprise, to name but one, the industry as a whole would have been much more resilient. The reason they had to keep buying upstarts like Enterprise is the same as Schlumberger (to name but one) keeps buying companies, because they run themselves as governments – they stifle the initiative and risk which others less choked with layers of management take.
There was a fact that back in the 80’s Shell re-discovered that they were an oil exploration business and during one brave move they got rid of either 5 or 8 layers of management (I can’t remember the exact details) … and no one noticed. I do remember the time as it was when they suddenly went from screwing drilling contractors on footage contracts and went to day rates.
Anyway, I am sure lots of people will interpret this in many ways.
Netherlands “Net Zero Plan”!
The official narrative, only a few short years ago, was that BREXIT would cause many companies to move their corporate headquarters out of London. Again, the official narrative was wrong.
A globalist company moves its HQ to a more globalist city.
I’m sure this will translate to better prices at the pumps for us peons.
sooooo theyre going *to* england to avoid taxes?
crikey must be awful in da ‘neverlands’
My first thought too. How many times we’ve read of celebrities usually heading out of Ol’ Blighty for one of the less taxed to the max colonies!
The UK is an odd location choice to avoid “climate pressure”. Though perhaps they know something we don’t; Boris is in some political hotwater at the moment (sleeze!) and his typically reactionary solution will not be popular with his party. He may get the boot, and his climate extremism along with him.
They are running from this court case ruling:
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/1000475878/in-landmark-case-dutch-court-orders-shell-to-cut-its-carbon-emissions-faster
“company must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030, based on 2019 levels” – which probably gave Shell 2 options: close shop or move
Moving to the home of extinction rebellion. Keep your enemies close, keep your masters closer.
I’m going to predict they’ll do away with the name and have a marketing firm pick some BS non-name from a hat. Hmmm, ovintiv, nope taken, and besides it must contain both Enviro and energy in the name, Encuckviro for the win.
An important component of the lethargy of majors such as Shell is the recent dominance of the pension funds in its shareholder base.
Pension funds are largely the children of unions and government employees, and as such, are sufficiently woke. They are routinely in the ears of directors and management, and lately push their views agressively.
Hence Shell, along with BP and Exxon have declared their future to be somewhere else other than the production of oil and gas.
If you own any piece of these behemoths, sell.
Right wing dutchman=communist lite.
Be interesting to see what this actually all about, as those asshole shell guys are watermellons
Murray Edwards, billionaire CNRL head honcho, hightailed it to Londontown shortly after Red Rachel alighted the Alberta throne.
Shell sees a better future there.
London is the financial center, not Calgary nor The Hague.
This reminds me of the ten men that go to a restaurant every Friday and pay according to what they pay in income tax. A short story courtesy of T. Davies.
http://www.9types.com/chatboard/messages/20148.html
Moral of the story, “This works for taxes, this works for business, and shortly we may find it works for political parties.”. Keep pissing people off by changing the rules and the goalposts and they’ll find another field to play on. In a more succinct explanation LGBFJB or to paraphrase for all the Canucks here, LGBFJT. If you don’t get it it doesn’t matter you’ll probably always vote Liberal/Democrat anyway.
Big Oil companies are so crawling with moral cowardice and spin doctors from humanities and arts programs that in trying to be woke, they find themselves trying to put themselves out of business. They would be better off just saying “we produce what the world wants and needs to be prosperous and we make no apologies. If you don’t like that, try living without Oil and Gas”.
Been to the Shell home page lately? I had to double check, I thought for sure I inadvertently stumbled on Greenpeace’s propaganda page.