Gulf Times: Shell will settle rest of buyout: The proposed buyout price of 52.21 euros a share, which Royal Dutch Petroleum shareholders approved at an extraordinary shareholders meeting in The Hague yesterday, is still subject to arbitration by the Court of Appeals in Amsterdam sometime next year, Shell said in a statement.”: “The court is expected to rule on the case later in 2006.”: Published: Saturday, 17 December, 2005, 09:18 AM Doha Time
LONDON: Royal Dutch Shell will buy the remaining shares of Royal Dutch Petroleum NV, one of its two former holding companies, moving Europe’s second-largest oil company closer to completing a merger announced more than a year ago.
The proposed buyout price of 52.21 euros a share, which Royal Dutch Petroleum shareholders approved at an extraordinary shareholders meeting in The Hague yesterday, is still subject to arbitration by the Court of Appeals in Amsterdam sometime next year, Shell said in a statement.
The court became involved through the settlement earlier this week in a law suit by a minority investor, Trafalgar.
Yesterday’s vote, which approved merging the Dutch holding company into a Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary, SPNV, was a foregone conclusion. Royal Dutch Shell already owned 98.5% of the holding company’s shares after share swaps earlier this year. The transaction is expected to be completed by December 21.
Shell and Trafalgar will submit opinions on the fairness of the offer by the end of February, Shell spokesman Stuart Bruseth said on Thursday. The court is expected to rule on the case later in 2006.
Most investors in the holding company had already swapped their shares for “A” shares in the new combined company earlier this year, in a two-for-one swap. The 52.21-euro-per-share price agreed on was also based on a two-for-one swap, using the average price of “A” shares July 20 through October 28, Shell said.
“We consider that the price offered was fair and the process by which it was determined was transparent, being based on publicly quoted market prices,” Bruseth said. — Bloomberg
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