Shell’s business gamble, supported by oil prices at near record highs, is on the brink of paying off Photo: Newscast
By Jillian Ambrose: 21 Jan 2016
Key investment funds have voiced growing support for the planned £47bn merger of energy giants Shell and BG Group ahead of crucial shareholder votes next week.
Shell’s fifth biggest investor, Norges Bank Investment Management, said on Wednesday that it will vote in favour of the plan at the shareholder meeting on January 27.
The $790bn fund joins a growing group of shareholders in support of the deal, including smaller investment funds and investment advisory firms.
A spokeswoman for Norges Bank said: “In an environment of low oil prices, we believe the companies will stand stronger together.”
Oil prices have hit 12-year lows this week and Shell warned in its latest financial report that its earnings for the last quarter would tumble 40pc compared to the previous year.
But Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden said the BG takeover will mark the start of “a new chapter” to “rejuvenate” the firm despite the downturn in Brent crude.
Fund houses including Kames and Rathbone have also come out in favour of the deal, shrugging off concerns that historic lows on global oil prices could deepen Shell’s $130bn debt.
A spokesman for Kames said: “We do not assess the value of the deal against today’s low spot oil price: this is a long-term deal. The bulk of the consideration is in Shell’s own equity, which has in effect already factored in a lower oil price.”
The fund believes that BG’s assets “will strengthen Shell’s portfolio” and accelerate the oil major’s long-term drive towards its liquefied natural gas business and deepwater activities, the spokesman added.
In addition, many of Shell’s shareholders will be urged by proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and ISS to vote for the takeover after both publicly backed the plans earlier this year.
Shell needs to win support from the majority of its shareholders and at least 75pc of BG stakeholders to move ahead with the takeover.
Doubts over the deal emerged earlier this month after major shareholder Standard Life branded the tie-up “value destructive” and vowed to use its stake in Shell to oppose the plans. But days later the investment firm said it would use its 1.3pc stake in BG to vote in favour of the plans.
No other major shareholders have spoken out against the deal.
If the deal moves forward Shell will need to cut $7bn (£4.9bn) from its costs, $8bn of its investment and 10,300 jobs but will emerge as the world’s largest liquefied natural gas producer.
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.
