The Independent: Shell gets review advice

By Michael Harrison

14 July 2004

Royal Dutch/Shell stepped up the review of its much-criticised corporate structure yesterday by hiring financial advisers to help the committee undertaking the work.

Citigroup and NM Rothschild have been appointed to enable the board committee, led by non-executive director Lord Kerr to "deepen" its analysis of the options open to the Anglo-Dutch company.

Shell has already publicly stated that one of these options may be to abandon its dual board structure and switch to a unified board, as other Anglo-Dutch companies have effectively done.

The company has also declared that the review will result in the abolition of the priority shares in its Dutch half which are widely seen as a poison pill defence against takeover.

The company was heavily criticised at its annual meeting in June over the way the review was being conducted.

Since then, Shell said that Lord Kerr and his four colleagues on the steering committee had been in discussion with major investors.

Shell aims to publish the results of the review in November in time to put proposals for changes to its corporate structure and governance arrangements to its twin annual meetings in April next year.

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