by Sarah Thompson Anthony Macdonald Joyce Moullakis
With December’s silly season now underway, brokers are left with precious few trading days to launch any significant placements and block trades.
But one stake remains at the top of every firm’s watchlist: Shell’s 13.3 per cent stake in Woodside Petroleum.
Firstly, there’s a motivated seller. The oil giant’s chief financial officer Simon Henry classified the $3.4 billion stake as “available for sale” when he informed investors in August of a change in how Shell classifies its stake in the Australian oil and gas producer.
The move appeared to be driven by technical reasons because of Shell’s reduced representation on Woodside’s board. But at the same time it signalled a firmer intention to dispose of the stake, which Shell has for some time declared as a non-strategic holding.
Now Woodside’s share price is trading at $30.34, close to the 12-month high of $30.63, although still well below the $40-plus per share that Shell got in previous sell-downs in November 2010 and June 2014, both in Australian and US dollars.
But with oil prices off their lows and OPEC due to meet on Wednesday, this could be Shell’s moment to make a graceful exit – providing OPEC doesn’t disappoint the market and fail to make a deal to cut production, of course.
The stake, worth about $3.4 billion at current share prices, has long been expected among the $US30 billion of divestments Shell is targeting for 2016-18.
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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.
