Page 10 - EurOil Week 50 2021

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Shell shareholders overwhelmingly

back move to London

NETHERLANDS SHAREHOLDERS at Shell have overwhelm- strengthen Shell’s competitiveness and accelerate
ingly backed plans to relocate the company’s both shareholder distributions and delivery of its
The company has said headquarters and tax residence from the Neth- strategy to become a net-zero emissions energy
a climate ruling by a erlands to the UK, as well as make changes business by 2050, in step with society.”
Dutch court has nothing to the Anglo-Dutch major’s shareholder The Dutch government has unsurprisingly
to do with its decision. structure. reacted badly to Shell’s departure, expressing
The move to London will involve the reloca- concerns about the impact on investments and
tion of CEO Ben van Beurden and CFO Jessica jobs in the Netherlands. But Shell has sought to
Uhl, and Shell’s board and executive committee allay these fears.
meetings will also take place in the UK from now “We have considerable operations here in the
on. The plan will also reform the company’s com- Netherlands … and that will not be changed one
plicated structure of dual-class shares - the result bit by the possible change in location,” Macken-
of a merger that took place in 2005 between the zie was quoted as saying ahead of the final vote
UK and Dutch sides of the business - which Shell tally.
argues is both confusing for shareholders and There was some speculation that Shell was
limiting for the company. also trying to escape mounting environmental
By having a single line of shares, Shell will be pressure on the company in the Netherlands.
able to buy back more shares from its investors, Shell was successfully sued at a Dutch court
helping to push up its share price and reward for not doing enough to reduce emissions, not
shareholders. Meanwhile, the change in its tax only from its direct operations but also the use
residency will also mean that Shell avoids a 15% of its products by customers. Shell has appealed
dividend tax. There is currently a push inside against the ruling, and has raised its climate
the Netherlands to remove this tax, but a past ambitions in response, though it is yet to intro-
attempt by the government in 2017 was ulti- duce a Scope 3 target for emissions as ordered
mately abandoned. by the court.
Lastly, Shell will remove the “Royal Dutch” In any case, the company denied that this had
from its registered company name, which it has anything to do with its relocation.
held for more than a century. “Our move has nothing to do with the con-
Shell said some 99.7% of voting shareholders siderations you’re talking about there,” Macken-
had supported the proposals. zie told a shareholder who asked about the court
“This resounding support from shareholders case. “We will stay in the Netherlands, we like the
to amend Shell’s Articles of Association will ena- Netherlands. To make this company perform
ble a simplification of the company’s share struc- better for the Netherlands is part of the reason
ture and an increase in the speed and flexibility we’re making this change.”
of capital and portfolio actions,” Shell chairman Shell’s board will meet following the vote to
Andrew Mackenzie commented on the result. make a final decision, with the planned reloca-
“The board believes that the simplification will tion expected to take place early next year ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 16•December•2021