Commodities | Mon Feb 1, 2016 9:28pm GMT
Credit ratings agency Standard and Poors on Monday downgraded oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc to A+/A-1 from AA-/A-1+ and put its long-term credit rating on creditwatch negative citing sliding oil prices.
S&P said Shell’s one-notch downgrade, driven by weaker forecasts for its credit metrics over 2016-2018 and slower profit improvements, excluded the ratings impact of its BG Group Plc acquisition.
Shell had said it was prepared for a downgrade as a result of the BG deal.
But S&P said that as that deal was not assessed for the rating action there could be a second downgrade due to Shell’s significant additional debt burden and uncertainty over the returns the transaction will bring.
S&P also put a string of other major European energy companies on creditwatch negative such as BP PLC, Eni SpA , Repsol SA, Statoil ASA, Statoil Forsikring AS, Statoil US Holdings Inc and Total SA .
In April last year, Shell agreed to buy smaller rival BG Group for 47 billion pounds ($70 billion) in a cash and stock deal that valued each BG share at a premium of about 52 percent to BG’s 90-day trading average.
Prior to the acquisition, Shell was seen as one of the best companies in terms of its ability to balance its books and invest and pay dividends from cashflow without borrowing too heavily.
(Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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.
