Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

What you don’t know about Royal Dutch Shell’s Profit Warning

Screen Shot 2014-02-11 at 11.05.56I can exclusively reveal today that the question of whether Shell was legally obliged to issue a profits warning did not first arise in relation to the final quarter. It was raised at the highest levels of Shell and of the Financial Conduct Authority some months earlier, in between the announcement of Peter Voser’s early retirement and the announcement of the Q3 results.

By John Donovan

Shell shareholders have been faced with a series of shocks, one stunning announcement by Royal Dutch Shell Plc after another.

All rather mysterious and without any credible explanation.

Started with the announcement of Voser’s decision to take early retirement from Shell at the age of 55, as a lifestyle change. It was said at the time to have “stunned investors.”

Next came the surprise announce of Ben van Beurden as his replacement. No one guessed that he was even in the race for the top job at Shell.

Within days of Ben van Beurden taking over as Chief Executive Officer on 1st Jan 2014, Shell announced the sudden mysterious departure of his Executive Director colleague, Peter Rees QC, the global head of Shell’s Legal Department.

Days later, Shell took the markets by complete surprise by announcing a profits warning accompanied by an avalanche of bad news.

It seems highly probable that these two seismic events – the sudden exit of Rees and the issuance of a profits warning – were connected.

Was Peter Rees for or against the profit warning, issued on advice from lawyers?

I can exclusively reveal today that the question of whether Shell was legally obliged to issue a profits warning did not first arise in relation to the final quarter. It was raised at the highest levels of Shell and of the Financial Conduct Authority some months earlier, in between the announcement of Peter Voser’s early retirement and the announcement of the Q3 results.

It is fair to conclude, as would be expected, that the Executive Directors and the Company Secretary of Royal Dutch Shell plc knew long before investors that the company was in serious difficulties of crisis proportion and kept that information secret.  It is also fair to speculate, therefore, that at least one executive director took a life changing decision based on that insider knowledge.

PHOTO CREDIT AND RELATED ARTICLE: Energy giant Shell issues shock profits warning

MORE RELATED ARTICLES

Shareholders have grounds to bring lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell Plc?

CFO Simon Henry: Just how many lives has this Shell fat cat got?

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.