The Hague December 10, 2021 (AFP) – Shareholders of oil giant Shell voted by a majority, Friday (10), to move the group’s headquarters from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom, and to withdraw Royal Dutch. from your name.
Chairman Andrew McKenzie praised in an official document the “strong support of shareholders,” who voted 99.77% in favor of the proposals at a meeting in Rotterdam.
So the group will move its financial residence and senior management, including CEO Ben van Beurden, to London. The company will keep its 8,500 employees in the Netherlands.
The group said in a statement that this step “will enhance Shell’s competitiveness, accelerate shareholder agreements and implement its strategy to become a net-zero energy company by 2050 in line with the partnership.”
Europe’s largest energy company wants to simplify its structure and align its tax residence with the country in which it is registered, the United Kingdom.
In addition, the group is ensuring that the change, whose announcement made headlines in November, would allow the company to speed up the transition to zero emissions.
“Several factors” were taken into account in the decision, McKenzie said.
He admitted that the Dutch government’s abandonment of a plan to abolish the profit tax was one of them.
But he denied that the move was prompted by a Dutch court ruling earlier this year that obligated Shell to reduce its emissions.
The company was created in 1907. The conversion would mean a loss of billions of euros in tax revenue for the Dutch state, according to the local press.
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Shell Royal Dutch PLC
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