Shell policies on directors’ pay and carbon emissions in spotlight

By Mark Williamson Group Business Correspondent

INVESTORS have signalled unease about Royal Dutch Shell’s boardroom pay policy at the company’s annual general meeting.

Around seven per cent of votes cast opposed approval of the directors’ remuneration policy of the oil giant at the meeting.

Chief executive Ban van Beurden’s total remuneration dropped by around £9m last year, from £17.8m in 2018, following a fall in the value of his performance-related awards. read more

‘Big win’ as Shell urged by more shareholder activists to meet climate targets

by David McPhee: 19/05/2020, 3:15 pm

A shareholder activist group has claimed a ‘big win’ after an increase in the number of investor votes urging Shell to meet its climate targets.

Follow This, which has led a campaign to encourage oil firms such BP, Shell, Chevron and Equinor to align their targets with the Paris Climate Agreement, saw 14.4% of investors vote for its resolution at Shell’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) – an increase from 5.5% in 2019. read more

Protesters chant ‘Shell must fall’ at oil major’s meeting

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Dozens of demonstrators chanting “Shell must fall” gathered on Tuesday outside the oil giant’s headquarters in the Netherlands, where a virtual annual shareholders’ meeting was underway.

Roughly 30 activists from environmental groups Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion and Code Red sang and danced in protest at the Hague offices of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L).

Hundreds of activists had signed up to attend, but Dutch authorities allowed no more than 30 due to coronavirus distancing measures. read more

London, April 16, 2020

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC

NOTICE OF 2020 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

• Attendance in person at the Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) not allowed
• London Shareholder Presentation cancelled
• Shareholders who want their votes to count must vote in advance of the AGM
• Measures taken, in line with government restrictions, to protect those that may have tried to attend the AGM and/or the London Shareholder Presentation, our employees, AGM staff and the public

Today, Royal Dutch Shell plc (“Shell”) posted notice of its AGM (the “Notice”), which can be viewed and downloaded from www.shell.com/agm. The Notice states that the AGM is scheduled to be held at Shell headquarters, at Carel van Bylandtlaan 16, 2596 HR, The Hague, The Netherlands at 10:00 (Dutch time) on Tuesday May 19, 2020.

Please note that the Notice emphasises that we are closely monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 virus and how this may affect the AGM arrangements. read more

The people who some would say have sold their souls to a toxic oil company with an evil history. Back Row: Catherine J. Hughes, Sir Nigel Sheinwald GCMG, Euleen Goh, Gerrit Zalm, Linda G. Stuntz, Roberto Setubal, Ann Godbehere. Front Row: Jessica Uhl (CFO), Ben van Beurden (CEO), Charles O. Holliday (Chair), Tjalling Wiersma, and Gerard Kleisterlee

HOW TO GRAB MAXIMUM ATTENTION AT MINIMUM COST TO VENTILATE YOUR GRIPE OR CAMPAIGN AGAINST SHELL, WHETHER ON THE GROUNDS OF OPL 245 CORRUPTION, PLUNDER, POLLUTION, ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS, PERSONAL INJURY, OR ALLEGED COMPLICITY IN THE MURDER OF THE OGONI 9.

BECOME A SHELL INVESTOR AND GENERATE AWARENESS AT AN INVESTMENT COST OF JUST OVER £30. THAT MODEST INVESTMENT WILL ALLOW YOU TO RAISE A RUCKUS AGAINST ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC AT ITS AGM IN FRONT OF THE ASSEMBLED SHELL BOARD, SHELL SHAREHOLDERS AND THE NEWS MEDIA.

The information in italics comes from a Daily Mail article published on 12 August 2019.

You can buy shares through an AJ Bell Youinvest account online for £9.95, for example, with ongoing fees of up to £7.50 a quarter.

You need to purchase only one share in the company you want to target. A share in Shell currently costs £23.98…

Once you are a shareholder, you should be sent the firm’s annual report and other information for investors, which can also be found on its website.

You will also have the right to attend annual general meetings (AGMs) and vote on company policies. read more

Toby Sterling: MAY 21, 2019

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – A group of environmental activists tried to disrupt Royal Dutch Shell’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, calling for this year’s gathering to be the company’s last.

Around 20 activists from Dutch environmental action group Code Rood (Code Red) dressed in red jumpsuits held up banners with the slogan “shut down fossil power” and jeered at passing shareholders as they stood outside the energy giant’s meeting in the seaside town of Scheveningen near The Hague. read more

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Royal Dutch Shell plc

Apr 11, 2019, 04:12 ET

LONDON, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Royal Dutch Shell plc (the “Company”) (NYSE: RDS.A) (NYSE: RDS.B) announces that its 2019 Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) will be held at the Circustheater, Circusstraat 4, 2586 CW The Hague, The Netherlands at 10:00 (Dutch time) on Tuesday May 21, 2019.  The Notice of Annual General Meeting (the “Notice”) can be viewed and downloaded from www.shell.com/agm. read more

English translation of an article published by Dutch newspaper ncr.nl on 26 March 2019. The extensive parts of the article relating to Ben van Burden and Shell are in bold print. 

Are top managers being bugged?

White collar, dirty hands? You don’t have to be a suspect of cocaine smuggling in the Netherlands to be overheard by the judiciary. In recent years, the telephones of at least two board chairmen have been tapped. Maybe even more. They never put such information in an annual report.

The first was Theo Bruijninckx, chairman of the board of the then already financially weakened construction company Ballast Nedam. In the spring of 2012, he was intercepted on various telephones (home, mobile, at the office). He was not a suspect, but justice was looking for information about an older bribery case. Ballast Nedam was taken over by the Turkish conglomerate Rönesans after a series of losses in 2015. read more

A quarter of Shell shareholders turned on Ben Van Beurden after he pocketed €8.9m (£7.8m)

Jillian Ambrose: 22 MAY 2018 • 2:02PM

The boss of Royal Dutch Shell has suffered a bruising shareholder revolt after more than a quarter of its investors voted against his multi-million euro payout for last year.

Ben Van Beurden pocketed €8.9m (£7.8m) for 2017 after trebling the company’s profits to $12.1bn (£9bn) as the oil giant staged an impressive recovery from a crash in prices.

But shareholders took against the FTSE 100 boss after an accident in Pakistan last year claimed the lives of more than 200 people in an explosion of a fuel tanker operated by one of the energy giant’s subsidiaries. read more

FILE PHOTO: Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell company, speaks during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Reuters Staff: May 22, 2018

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) shareholders on Tuesday approved the 2017 management remuneration, including Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden’s 8.9 million euro ($10.51 million) package, by a majority of 75 percent.

The 2016 remuneration resolution won the support of more than 92 percent of shareholders. read more

Jillian Ambrose, energy editor: 20 MAY 2018 • 7:30PM

Britain’s largest shareholder advisory groups have called on investors in Royal Dutch Shell to reject growing demands for the oil giant to take full responsibility for its impact on the environment.

Shell faces a binding shareholder vote tomorrow to decide whether to adopt rigorous accountability standards to bring its operations into line with the Paris climate agreement. Glass Lewis and ISS have urged shareholders to reject the “unduly burdensome” and “problematic” proposal. read more

Alys Key: Retail and leisure reporter: Tuesday 15 May 2018

More shareholder rebellions are brewing as a summer of AGM revolts gets underway, with oil and gas companies the latest to face the music. Shareholders in BP are being urged to vote against the “unacceptable” pay of chief executive Bob Dudley, whose remuneration is 48 times higher than the company’s average employee. Advisory service Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) advised shareholders to oppose the company’s remuneration report at the annual general meeting on 21 May. FULL ARTICLE read more

Royal Dutch Shell Plc will face difficult questions at its annual general meeting next week after an investor-advisory group urged shareholders to challenge executive pay and the company’s response to a fatal accident in Pakistan. 

Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., an influential adviser on corporate governance, has recommended investors reject Shell’s pay report at its AGM on May 22, saying it was initially “silent” on the Pakistan incident. ISS also said it could only offer “qualified support” to the re-election of the independent director looking after corporate social responsibility.  read more

Attracta Mooney and Andrew Ward in London: 13 MAY 2018

Royal Dutch Shell is facing the threat of a shareholder rebellion against its chief executive’s €9m annual pay packet, piling further pressure on the energy group which was already braced for a clash with investors this month over climate change.  Institutional Shareholder Services, the advisory firm whose recommendations influence votes at annual meetings, has urged investors to reject Shell’s 2017 remuneration report, citing concerns about high payouts and safety issues.  Ben van Beurden, chief executive, received €8.9m last year… FULL FT ARTICLE read more

Church of England funds back AGM resolution calling for more aggressive targets read more

Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden has the same message for activists seeking to bind Royal Dutch Shell Plc to deep emissions cuts, and investors concerned about the merits of shifting away from oil and gas: Trust me. He advised shareholders on Monday to reject a resolution from climate group Follow This that would set clear targets for the company’s greenhouse-gas emissions, more specific than its current broad “ambition.” He also reiterated his intention for Shell to make most of its money from clean energy in 20 years, such as renewables, hydrogen or carbon capture in 20 years. FULL ARTICLE read more