Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Oil major Royal Dutch Shell could face protests over its huge awards for directors despite failing to meet performance targets.
Voting advisory firm RiskMetrics has recommended that shareholders vote against Shell’s remuneration report at the firm’s annual meeting in two weeks’ time due to the share awards, the Financial Times said.
Shell was ranked fourth out of five for its performance against peers BP, US firms Chevron and ExxonMobil and France’s Total.
This should have meant no share awards were made under the group’s long-term incentive plan – but Shell’s remuneration committee decided that the difference between third and fourth place was “marginal”.
It decided that the ranking “did not fully reflect Shell’s relative performance” and released half the shares that directors would have been entitled to for the 2006-08 period under the scheme.
According to Shell’s annual report, chief executive Jeroen van der Veer – who received a total package worth £8.2 million in 2008 – was awarded 155,036 shares for 2006-08 under the long-term incentive plan.
Directors were entitled to 80% of these shares for a third place ranking, but even the 50% agreed gives the chief executive 77,518 shares with a value of around £1.2 million at current prices.
As well as criticism from RiskMetrics, who were unavailable for comment, the Association of British Insurers also slapped an “amber top” rating on the company’s remuneration report.
An ABI spokesman said: “We have given an amber top rating to reflect that shareholders need to make a careful judgment on the issues on which the remuneration committee has used discretion.”
The Anglo-Dutch firm made profits of £22 billion last year, but falling oil prices have hit its performance so far this year.
Last week Shell posted profits of 3.3 billion US dollars (£2.26 billion) for the first three months of 2009, down 58% on a year earlier.
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.
