Daily Telegraph: Shell shows some sense: “At last, faint signs of common sense emerging from the Shell Lubyanka over the fate of the British shareholders in Royal Dutch.”: Saturday 13 August 2005

Shell may offer tax-efficient option to its rebel investors

At last, faint signs of common sense emerging from the Shell Lubyanka over the fate of the British shareholders in Royal Dutch.

Despite spending $115m in fees, Shell had resolutely ignored their plight.

The scheme to create Royal Dutch Shell has presented them with a taxable capital gain, even though they have not sold their shares.

The otherwise admirable Jeroen van der Veer, Shell's new chief executive, had claimed that there was nothing in the toolbox which could help them.

Now it seems there might be, and it looks like a pretty simple tool, too.

Shell has promised to look into the possibility of the sort of routine paper swap familiar to anyone who has been offered shares in a bidding company.

Can Van the Builder fix it?

Surely he can; he might send the bill to the advisers, too.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/08/13/ccom13.xml

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