Ah, Shell—the oil-slicked titan of greed, pollution, and profit-before-planet whose moral compass seems to point straight to the nearest offshore tax haven. You’d think this global goliath of carbon chaos would be comfortably lounging atop its pile of petrodollars. But no, even they aren’t safe from Wall Street’s cold, calculating buzzards. Enter Elliott Management: the hedge fund equivalent of a vulture on steroids, now circling Shell like it’s a wounded gazelle.
Yes, Elliott—Paul Singer’s merciless American juggernaut of “activist investing” (read: financial warfare)—has just shorted Shell to the tune of £850 million. That’s 0.5% of Shell’s stock, making it the biggest short against the FTSE 100 oil giant in nearly a decade. When Elliott smells weakness, it doesn’t just poke the bear. It sells the bear’s fur in advance and sues the forest.