The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies plans to merge its two holding companies after nearly a century. The Royal Dutch/Shell Group businesses have been managed as a unit since 1907, but it is owned by two parents, Shell Transport & Trading Co Ltd, which holds 40%, and Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., which holds 60%. It is proposed to that these two parents will merge and form the supervisory board of the company. It will be named Royal Dutch Shell PLC and be based in London – but with its physical headquarters and tax home in The Hague, Netherlands. If the deal is approved by shareholders, they will receive shares in the new, single company on a one-for-one basis. The current chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group’s board of managers, Jeroen van der Veer, will continue as the new company’s chief executive. “This is the end of 60:40, we become one company with one share,” Van der Veer said. “There is one set of directors, one chief executive, one person who has to take full accountability.”
