by Tsuyoshi Inajima and Stephen Stapczynski: BLOOMBERG.COM: 30 JULY 2015
Royal Dutch Shell Plc agreed to sell a 33.24 percent stake in a Japanese refiner to Idemitsu Kosan Co. for about 169 billion yen ($1.4 billion).
The deal for 125.3 million shares in Showa Shell Sekiyu KK is almost 23 percent more than the closing price Wednesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The transaction is scheduled to be completed in 2016, according to a statement from The Hague, Netherlands-based company. The energy major will retain a 1.8 percent holding in the Japanese refiner.
Shell also announced on Thursday it plans to cut 6,500 jobs this year and reduce capital investment by $7 billion as it prepares for a “prolonged downturn.” Meanwhile, Japanese refiners are under mounting pressure from the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to merge and cut capacity as demand for oil products in Japan shrinks amid a declining population.
“Shell appears to be reducing their global oil footprint and focusing more on gas,” Tom O’Sullivan, founder of Tokyo-based energy consultant Mathyos, said by e-mail. “The Japanese oil market is contracting by about 2 percent a year or so and METI appear to be orchestrating an orderly reduction in Japan’s overall refining capacity.”
Showa Shell and Idemitsu agreed to advance discussions toward a merger, though the details haven’t been finalized, Showa Shell President Tsuyoshi Kameoka and Idemitsu President Takashi Tsukioka said at a briefing in Tokyo.
Shell Strategy
Showa Shell gained 6.2 percent, the biggest rise since Dec. 22, to close at 1,170 yen a share in Tokyo trading. Idemitsu lost 4 percent to 2,239 yen.
Idemitsu would control about a third of the domestic gasoline market under the deal, putting it on par with the country’s largest refiner, JX Holdings Inc., according to data published by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission in 2013.
Idemitsu plans to raise about 169 billion yen in debt to fund the purchase from Shell, Susumu Nibuya, a director at Idemitsu, said at the briefing.
Idemitsu has three refineries with total capacity of 535,000 barrels a day, the third-biggest Japan processor after JX and TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Showa Shell also owns three refineries with combined capacity of 445,000 barrels a day, according to the data.
“It’s getting closer to the end game,” Hidetoshi Shioda, a Tokyo-based analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said by phone. After the latest deal, the Japanese refining industry may not need further mergers and can focus on growth areas, Shioda said.
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.
