Daily Mail: Shell facing writ for hundreds of millions: “Shell, whose chief executive is Jeroen van der Veer, has already paid $90m (GBP51m) to settle one US shareholder lawsuit.”: Posted Thursday Jan 11, 2006

By Edmund Conway

Shell's embarrassing reserves overstatements scandal returned to haunt it yesterday as the oil giant was slapped with a writ for hundreds of millions of dollars for its past wrongs.

A group of 26 Dutch pension funds said they deserved financial compensation for the 2004 debacle, which sent Shell's share price plunging and prompted a complete management overhaul.

The Dutch government and education sector's pension fund ABP is leading the action, which has been lodged with a court in New Jersey. It is demanding GBP85m in compensation.

Shell, whose A-shares dropped 7p to GBP18.41, is having to fight off a number of legal challenges stemming from the revelation that it overstated the amount of oil it had in its reserves by around 20pc. Top managers including Sir Philip Watts were sacked as a result.

The ABP group has brought its own case because it fears it may be excluded from a similar securities class action suit in the US. ABP's lawyers, Grant & Eisenhofer, said the funds bought more than 200m Shell shares between 1999 and 2005.

"The funds claim they acquired their shares at artificially inflated prices and that the overall value of their holdings suffered massive losses, the exact amounts to be determined at trial," they said.

Lawyer Jay Eisenhofer said: "Despite the complex oil reserve accounting issues behind the suit, this case is really about misplaced trust. The fact that such a large group of public institutional investors, representing virtually the entire workforce of a single country, has joined forces in this case is a good indication of the sense of betrayal felt by Dutch shareholders by the management of Royal Dutch."

A Shell spokesman said the company "contests ABP's claim and will vigorously defend itself against the action." Shell, whose chief executive is Jeroen van der Veer, has already paid $90m (GBP51m) to settle one US shareholder lawsuit.

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