Can we still be friends? Shell sends Dutch PM parting note
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – On the day that shareholders of Royal Dutch Shell PLC voted to move the company’s headquarters to London from The Hague, the company sent a letter to the Dutch prime minister to soften the blow.
Signed by Shell CEO Ben van Beurden, the letter said Shell’s departure had been “a difficult message for us to announce,” given the company had more than a century of history.
But the letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte outlined the many projects and activities Shell will continue in the Netherlands, including retaining 8,500 employees, and the division-level management of Shell’s upstream (production), renewable energy and projects & technology divisions.
Shell has said its shift to Britain would mean just nine staff, including CEO Van Beurden, would leave the Netherlands.
“In this letter, we would like to affirm our commitment to the Netherlands,” Van Beurden, who is Dutch, wrote. “Shell has the ambition to be, both through its own investments and through cooperation with others, one of the largest drivers of the energy transition in the Netherlands.”
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Barbara Lewis)
