Daily Telegraph (UK): Dutch return at the double: “Apparently, the oil giant took 20 minutes to decide to merge its joint boards on Wednesday night.” (ShellNews.net)

City diary

Edited by Helena Keers (Filed: 29/10/2004)

Even slimming down its management structure is a complicated process for Shell. Apparently, the oil giant took 20 minutes to decide to merge its joint boards on Wednesday night. But that wasn't enough to ratify the deal, because both boards had to approve it separately.

So the Brits at Shell centre in Waterloo reconvened immediately to sign, while the Dutchmen were obliged to find some Dutch soil on which to reconvene. Their fallback was the Dutch Embassy in Knightsbridge, but fortunately, the storms failed to stop their scheduled flight to Holland. Such are the joys of corporate compliance.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/10/29/ccdiary29.xml