Shell shareholders agree to move headquarters to the UK

Shareholders of oil giant Shell voted by a majority on Friday in favor of moving the group’s headquarters from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom and removing the name Royal Dutch from its name.

Chairman of the Board, Andrew Mackenzie, praised in an official document the “resounding support of shareholders”, who voted 99.77% in favor of the proposals at a meeting in Rotterdam.

So the group will move its tax residence and senior management, including CEO Ben van Beurden, to London. The company will keep its 8,500 employees in the Netherlands.

The group said in a statement that this step “will enhance Shell’s competitiveness, accelerate shareholder deals and implement its strategy to become a net zero energy company by 2050 in line with the partnership.”

Europe’s largest energy company wants to simplify its structure and align its tax residence with the country in which it is registered, the United Kingdom.

In addition, the group asserts that the move, whose announcement in November made headlines, would allow the company to speed up its transition to zero emissions.

McKenzie stressed that “many factors” were taken into account in the decision.

He admitted that the Dutch government’s abandonment of a plan to abolish the dividend tax was one of them.

But he denied that the move was motivated by a Dutch court ruling this year demanding Shell cut its emissions.

The company was created in 1907. Its conversion will result in the loss of billions of euros in tax revenue for the Dutch state, according to local media.

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