DAILY TELEGRAPH UK: New Shell formulation will take time to settle down
SATURDAY 23 JULY 2005
More news from Shell this week, except thankfully it was nothing to do with losing reserves. The oil giant has unified its dual corporate structure to create Royal Dutch Shell.
There are now two lines of stock traded in London. Shell A shares, which originate from the former Dutch parent Royal Dutch Petroleum, and Shell B shares, which replace UK arm Shell Transport and Trading.
With all the shares in the new company now traded on the London Stock Exchange, the number of shares – and its market capitalisation – has more than doubled. Investors’ holdings in the unified group have changed too. Shell Transport investors have received 28 Royal Dutch Shell B shares for every 100 Shell shares held – that is why the Royal Dutch Shell B shares are trading at around 3.5 times the price of the old Shell shares.
Royal Dutch Petroleum shareholders collected two Royal Dutch Shell A shares for every old Royal Dutch share.
Other ratios affected by the increase in the number of shares in issue are earnings per share and dividend forecasts for this year, which jump to 169.9p and 63.1p respectively.
From a corporate perspective, the main difference is that Royal Dutch Shell will find it easier to issue new shares to fund acquisitions, which was difficult under the old dual structure.
Shell’s production is still likely to lag arch-rival BP because it did not invest in more production in the late 1990s. However it is sensibly using the high oil price to invest heavily in exploration, which should start to yield benefits by the end of the decade.
With such a complex shake-up, analysts’ forecasts are yet to settle down, which explains our sparse table, although one prominent US investment bank increasing its price target for the B shares to £20.65. At yesterday’s closing price of £17.95, Royal Dutch Shell B shares trade on 10.6 times prospective 2005 earnings, yielding 3.5pc. On this basis, the shares are cheap and rate a buy for a long-term.
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.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
