by Mary Morley: Tuesday, 02 Aug 2016, 10:38 BST
The latest fall in oil prices has revived concerns about Royal Dutch Shell’s (LON:RDSA) debt pile, analysts at RBC have said. The comments follow the oil major’s second-quarter results last week when the Anglo-Dutch group posted a hefty drop in profits.
Shell’s share price has fallen into negative territory in today’s session, tracking crude lower. As of 10:09 BST, the shares were changing hands 1.85 percent in the red at 1,853.50p, underperforming the benchmark FTSE 100 index which currently stands 0.77 percent lower at 6,642.68 points. The group’s shares have been little changed over the past year, and are up by more than a fifth in the year-to-date.
The Financial Times quoted analysts at RBC as commenting yesterday that while investors had become more comfortable with Shell’s purchase of former London-listed peer BG Group, the weak oil price had shifted attention to the enlarged group’s $75 billion of net debt and its reliance on disposals.
“Given limited room to manoeuvre on the balance sheet and the potential for more one-offs to be negative as we head through 2016 and early 2017, we think net debt likely grows over the coming quarters before it contracts,” the analysts pointed out, as quoted by the newspaper.
While Shell has a limit of keeping its net debt below 30 percent of its total capital, RBC expects the FTSE 100 group to break that limit next year if oil remained at $40 a barrel, and to remain cash flow negative even at $50 a barrel, even after factoring in $12 billion of divestment proceeds over the next two years. The analysts further noted that while the Anglo-Dutch major’s dividend should be safe, its investment credit rating looks vulnerable.
The comments come after Shell updated investors on its performance last week, posting a 72-percent drop in second-quarter earnings, pressured by weak commodity prices and costs related to BG’s acquisition.
As of 10:40 BST, Tuesday, 02 August, Royal Dutch Shell Plc ‘A’ share price is 1,856.25p.
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.
