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June 27th, 2004:

Former chairman of Royal/Dutch Shell gets giant payout: ‘after an accounting scandal’

Taipei Times: Former chairman of Royal/Dutch Shell gets giant payout: ‘after an accounting scandal’

SEVERANCE PACKAGE: Sir Philip Watts received £1.06 million after he stepped down from his post at the oil giant after an accounting scandal

Sunday, Jun 27, 2004,Page 11

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group’s former chairman, Sir Philip Watts, received a severance package worth £1.06 million (US$1.93 million), the amount he would have earned had he stayed on until retirement, the company said on Friday.

Watts was asked to step down in March, after an internal investigation found that the company had overstated its oil and gas reserves estimates for several years. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Embattled Shell braces for shareholder showdown

ChannelNewsAsia.com: Embattled Shell braces for shareholder showdown

“officers and directors of these interconnected companies have hidden behind an opaque and complicated corporate structure to falsify proved oil and gas reserves for nearly 10 years”

27 June 04

LONDON : The management of Royal Dutch/Shell is bracing for a showdown with angry shareholders this week over the oil giant’s energy reserves scandal.

The Anglo-Dutch group is facing calls for changes to its governance and ownership structure, under which London-based Shell owns 40 percent of the group and Netherlands-domiciled Royal Dutch Petroleum Company holds 60 percent.

The two companies are to hold what promise to be stormy dual annual shareholder meetings in London and The Hague on Monday. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell board braced for revolt

Mail on Sunday: Shell board braced for revolt

Patrick Tooher,

27 June 2004

SHELL faces a major shareholder revolt at its annual meeting tomorrow that could see nine directors, including chairman Jeroen van der Veer, kicked off the Dutch half of the board at the embattled oil giant.

Institutional Shareholder Services, the world’s largest proxy voting agency, is urging clients to back a motion that amounts to a vote of no confidence in the Royal Dutch board over its handling of the oil reserves fiasco.

Financial Mail has established that Dutch investors who typically support incumbent management and have been blocking corporate reforms, own less than 15% of the shares. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell told to hurry up on transparency

Sunday Times: Shell told to hurry up on transparency

Lucinda Kemeny

June 27, 2004

INSTITUTIONAL investors will unite to urge Royal Dutch/ Shell, the embattled oil giant, to speed up its review of corporate governance at a showdown annual meeting tomorrow.

Earlier this month the company bowed to demands for clarity and released details of a five-member governance review team, set up after repeated calls from shareholders.

Although shareholder groups welcomed the development, Lord Oxburgh, non-executive chairman, and Malcolm Brinded, managing director of London-listed Shell, can expect a stormy meeting. Investors have been further incensed by the oil group’s announcement on Friday that it is paying Sir Philip Watts, its sacked chairman, £1.06m — five times his contractual entitlement. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell heads for shareholder defeat on director responsibility

The Sunday Telegraph: Shell heads for shareholder defeat on director responsibility

By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 27/06/2004)

Royal Dutch faces an investor defeat if it fails to withdraw two key motions asking shareholders to absolve directors from responsibility for the oil giant’s recent troubles.

The Telegraph has taken soundings among leading shareholders in Royal Dutch, the Netherlands-based arm of Royal Dutch/Shell. These reveal that many intend either to vote against the motions or to abstain. None contacted by this newspaper said they would vote in favour.

About 25 per cent of Royal Dutch stock is owned by US-based investors. They are understood to be following the recommendation of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the influential proxy voting service. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Observer: Ethical funds dump Shell shares

The Observer: Ethical funds dump Shell shares

Nick Mathiason and Oliver Morgan

Sunday June 27, 2004

Leading institutions are selling shares in Shell over concerns about the way the company deals with environmental issues associated with its activities in Africa, the United States and Sakhalin Island off the Russian coast.

As the oil giant braces itself for a stormy annual general meeting tomorrow, two leading fund managers representing blue-chip City institutions have confirmed that they have ditched all their Shell shares.

Socially responsible investment (SRI) funds belonging to Investec Henderson Crosthwaite and Morley Fund Management have sold all Shell shares in recent months. The move is significant, because SRI decisions increasingly affect mainstream analysts’ investment recommendations. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Observer: A pearl in Shell?

The Observer: A pearl in Shell?

Oliver Morgan

Sunday June 27, 2004

With so much ink spilled over the enigma that is oil giant Shell this year, investors could be forgiven for wondering what to do.

A sage City gent recounted last week how he had bought Shell shares in the spring at around 350p and intended to stay in there until they reached a fiver. Wise? Well, the sector has been soaring away on the high oil price and record second-quarter results are expected next month.

Shell – which has its AGM tomorrow – may take years to close the gap in fundamentals between itself and peers BP and Exxon, but that’s not the point just now. A significant part of the problem comes down to what analysts call ’emotional’ discount – effectively incomprehension and irritation at the company’s obfuscation. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Observer: Shell shock

The Observer: Shell shock

Nick Mathiason
Sunday June 27, 2004

Execs at Shell will be praying for fine weather tomorrow. The accident-prone company’s AGM is in the morning in Docklands with a higher-than-usual quota of fund managers intending to turn up with awkward questions. With a journey time of just two hours from the Excel centre to the centre court, a rain-free day should entice troublemakers away well before chairman Lord Oxburgh runs out of prepared answers, a point rammed home to Cheapside by several of the City’s finest. But his lordship can expect extra vitriol if it rains. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Watchdog lawyer sues Shell, execs over reserves

Economic Times: Watchdog lawyer sues Shell, execs over reserves

Posted 27 June 04

NEW YORK: The army of lawyers swarming around Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which touched off a collapse in its stock price after it admitted inflating proved reserves, has just been joined by a well-known veteran.

Securities lawyer William Lerach, a lead player in many of the biggest shareholder class action suits of the past two decades, on Friday filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit against Shell and its executives in a New Jersey state court.

The suit on behalf of the UNITE National Retirement Fund and the Plumbers and Pipefitters National Pension Fund — alleges Shell directors and auditors failed to properly monitor company management, which ran afoul of new Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform rules in the United States. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shareholders to strike new blow against Shell directors

The Independent: Shareholders to strike new blow against Shell directors

By Tim Webb

27 June 2004

Up to a quarter of Shell’s shareholders will deliver a crushing vote of no confidence in the Anglo-Dutch oil giant’s management tomorrow.

Shareholders have warned that a “significant minority” will either abstain from or vote against the second resolution at the annual general meeting of the group’s Dutch arm in the Hague.

This asks them to approve the 2003 annual accounts. Under Dutch listing rules, Royal Dutch must ask shareholders to “discharge directors and managing directors of their responsibility in respect of their management for the year 2003”. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.