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Shell moves headquarters to United Kingdom

The oil and gas group Shell wants to become fully British on paper and is moving its headquarters from The Hague. The Dutch government is ‘unpleasantly surprised’ by the plans.

Shell will explain to its shareholders next month a plan for which the double structure of the company is revised. The head office in The Hague moves to London, including CEO Ben van Beurden and financial director Jessica Uhl. The company will keep its listings in Amsterdam, London and New York, but will drop the words ‘Royal Dutch’.

With the simpler structure, Shell hopes to become a more flexible and agile company. Although the group emphasizes that the move will not affect the activities of Shell Netherlands, the government says it is ‘unpleasantly surprised’. “The government deeply regrets that Shell wants to move its headquarters to the United Kingdom. We are discussing the consequences of this proposal for jobs, crucial investment decisions and sustainability with the top of Shell,” said Minister of Economic Affairs Stef Blok.



The government deeply regrets that Shell wants to move its head office to the United Kingdom.

Stef Blok

Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs



“I realize very well that the announcement is a difficult message for many people,” said CEO Ben van Beurden in a press release. ‘However, I would like to emphasize that the simplification of our structure is necessary to accelerate our strategy. In this way we can play a leading role in the energy transition.’

The plans are reminiscent of a similar redesign that Unilever carried out last year. The Anglo-Dutch food group became on paper completely British, after a fuss about the Dutch dividend tax. The government of Mark Rutte lured Unilever with the promise of its abolition, but was unable to deliver resistance about the price tag in parliament.

Unilever

Like Unilever, Shell now wants to end the division between A shares – listed on the Amsterdam AEX index – and B shares – which are traded via the London FTSE index. Last summer, CEO van Beurden announced in the Nederlandse Financieele Dagblad that Shell was considering a departure from the Netherlands. “It’s not an acute problem right now, but it’s a limiting factor for us,” he said.

Break up

At the end of October, the American Third Point still pushed for a radical change. New York investor Daniel Loeb’s leveraged fund took a $500 million stake and asked… the division of Shell into two separate companies: one around the old ‘legacy’ activities, such as oil and gas, and another dealing with renewable energy and other innovations.

The company itself emphasized on Monday that it is mainly active in the development of renewable energy in The Hague and Amsterdam. ‘Shell remains a major player in the Netherlands’, emphasizes Marjan van Loon, director of Shell Netherlands.

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