Mail on Sunday: ABN row embroils oil giant, Shell

By Simon Watkins
13 May 2007

Royal Dutch Shell is set to be drawn into the controversy surrounding the takeover of ABN Amro this week as rebel shareholders are expected to vote against the appointment of the bank’s boss to the oil giant’s board.
 
Shell plans to appoint ABN boss Rijkman Groenink as a non-executive director of its board at its agm on Tuesday.

But it is understood that rebel Dutch shareholders are set to vote against Groenink’s appointment because of his handling of the ABN takeover.

ABP, the Dutch government pension fund, is poised to vote against Groenink’s appointment to the Shell board, amid recriminations in the Netherlands over ABN’s sale to foreign banks and claims that Dutch shareholders have been sidelined.

ABN has agreed to a takeover by Barclays but is also being stalked by a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland.

The sale to Barclays is conditional on a separate deal in which ABN sells its US LaSalle operation to Bank of America.

This is in doubt after Dutch shareholders, angry at Groenink’s management, won a legal case giving them the right to vote on the LaSalle sale.

Bank of America has responded by launching its own legal case, claiming damages against ABN if it cannot complete the LaSalle deal.

The legal tangle has led to calls for Groenink to step down from ABN over his handling of the situation. It has made him unpopular with many in the wider Dutch investment community, angry at ABN’s alleged disregard for investors’ rights.

ABP owns less than half a per cent of Shell, but is hugely influential as it is the pension fund manager for Dutch government employees. It is the world’s third biggest pension fund, managing £155bn. ABP also owns stakes in ABN and both Barclays and RBS.

A spokesman for ABP declined to comment on its voting plans at the Shell AGM.

The battle for ABN has reached an apparent stalemate. To press ahead with the Barclays deal, the Dutch must win shareholder approval for the LaSalle sale to Bank of America.

ABN is thought to be unwilling to call a shareholding meeting until the RBS consortium has made its own plans more apparent, giving shareholders a clear choice.

Sources close to the consortium say it will wait for ABN to call its shareholder meeting before making any further moves. Barclays insists it is still thrashing out details of its merger with ABN.

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