Published: Feb 02, 2007
CALGARY – Shares of Shell Canada Ltd. dipped yesterday below the offer price set by Royal Dutch Shell PLC after the parent company said it was prepared to walk away from its bid to take out minority shareholders.
“The $45-per-share offer, we think, is full and fair value so it is now for the minority shareholder to make up their mind,” chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said.
“At a certain moment, if we don’t get enough people who are prepared to take this full and fair-valued offer, then we move on we have plenty of investment opportunities.”
Some shareholders, many of them hedge funds, cashed out and the stock closed at $44.90, down 36, as more than seven million shares traded hands.
But at least one top shareholder said he won’t tender at that price and is prepared to “grow and prosper” with the company, which last week announced with its partners plans for a fivefold increase production from its oilsands operation in Alberta.
“We think we can make a lot of money with this company longer term. That is why we owned it,” said Len Racioppo, president of Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., which controls 29.5 million shares.
Mr. Racioppo and other minority shareholders are holding out for a takeout price of around $50 a share.
Last week, the European oil major increased its bid for Shell Canada by 13% — to $45 a share, or $8.7-billion, up from the $40 a share, or $7.7-billion, offered in October. The bid is backed by the board of Shell Canada, which appointed a special committee of five independent directors last fall to provide a fairness opinion.
Royal Dutch has a shortage of reserves and wants to expand aggressively in Canada’s oilsands. Shell Canada holds 60% of the Athabasca Oilsands Project, which produces about 155,000 barrels a day.
Also last week, Shell Canada announced plans to expand that to 770,000 barrels a day, regardless of cost pressures and the recent drop in oil prices. Chief executive Clive Mather said the fundamentals of the business remain strong and the incentive to expand remains.
A takeover bid circular is expected to be mailed by Royal Dutch around the end of next week. It will include a report by the Shell Canada directors who looked into the fairness of the parent’s offer.
“We will see if we learn anything new in the circular,” Mr. Racioppo said. “We might change our minds, but I doubt it.”
Mr. van der Veer said his company is rejuvenating its portfolio through new, long-life growth projects that will become legacy assets and produce steady cash flow for decades to come.
“Our upstream investment is driven by a combination of exploration, LNG and unconventionals. Downstream, we are investing in size and complexity in manufacturing worldwide, and growth markets in the East.”
SHELL CANADA LTD.
Ticker SHC/TSX
Close $44.90, down 36
Volume 7,254,865
Avg. 6-month vol. 1,356,461
Rank in FP500 20
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.
