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Abonner Stichting Shell Reserves Compensation Foundation and Royal Dutch Shell plc

Stichting Shell Reserves Compensation Foundation and Royal Dutch Shell plc

/C O R R E C T I O N -- Stichting Shell Reserves Compensation Foundation and Royal Dutch Shell plc/

The Hague (ots/PRNewswire)

In the news release, "Amsterdam
Court of Appeals Sets Date for Hearing With  Respect to Shell
Securities Class Settlement of Reserve-Related Claims With  European
and Other Non US Investors" issued on 11 Apr 2008 05:30 GMT, by
Stichting Shell Reserves Compensation Foundation and Royal Dutch
Shell plc  over PR Newswire, we are advised that the source of the
press release should  have read Stichting Shell Reserves Compensation
Foundation and Royal Dutch  Shell plc rather than Stitching Shell
Reserves Compensation Foundation as  incorrectly transmitted by PR
Newswire.   Complete, corrected release follows:
Shell (i), Stichting Shell Reserves Compensation Foundation
(the
Foundation), VEB (the Dutch Shareholders Association), APG, All
Pensions
Group (on behalf of pension fund ABP) and PGGM (on behalf of
Stichting
Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn) have announced that the Amsterdam
Court of
Appeals (the Court) has scheduled a hearing on 20 November 2008
with respect
to their request for a binding declaration of their settlement
agreement
concerning reserve-related claims. This settlement agreement
provides relief
in the amount of US$352.6 million to qualifying
non-U.S.-shareholders who
bought Shell shares on any stock exchange outside the United
States between
April 8, 1999 and March 18, 2004 (the European settlement).
The European settlement was originally reached and announced
in April
2007. The parties opted to wait to file an amended petition until
a
U.S.-court ruled on Shell's position that the Court did not have
jurisdiction
to consider the claims of non-U.S. shareholders in the pending
U.S. class
action based upon the same reserves issues.
Theo Raaijmakers, chairman of the Foundation's Board: "In the
past months
the support for the European settlement has continued to
increase. After the
non-U.S. investors of Shell were excluded from the U.S. case, the
parties to
the European settlement finalized an amended petition so that
additional
details respecting the settlement could be provided to the Dutch
court. Now
that the Court has set a date for the hearing, the parties will
provide
notice of the settlement and of the hearing to non-U.S.
investors."
On March 6, 2008 Shell announced the settlement in principle
of
reserve-related claims with U.S. investors providing, among other
relief, a
base settlement amount of US$82.85 million to resolve the
securities class
action pending in the U.S., from which the non-U.S. shareholders
were
excluded in January. The parties in the U.S. class action have
not yet
finalized this U.S. settlement, nor sought court approval. After
finalization
and court approval, the U.S. settlement would have an effect on
the European
settlement. The U.S. class and the participants in the European
settlement
collectively would receive an additional payment of US$35
million, to be
divided in accordance with proportions determined in the two
proposed
settlements. In addition, Shell has agreed to pay interest on the
European
settlement amount effective April 1, 2008.
About the Foundation
The Stichting Shell Reserves Compensation Foundation (the
Foundation) is
a foundation representing all shareholders covered by the
European settlement
agreement. The Foundation's participants, which are all fully
supporting the
European settlement agreement, include 133 institutional
investors (APG on
behalf of pension fund ABP, PGGM on behalf of Stichting
Pensioenfonds Zorg en
Welzijn, DEKA, Norges, UBS and Morley, amongst others) as well as
Euroshareholders, the confederation of European shareholders
associations,
and 18 other organizations representing individual shareholders
from Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands and a number of
other
countries. Together with Shell, APG, PGGM and the VEB (the Dutch
Shareholders
Association), the Foundation has requested that the Court declare
this
settlement binding. If the Court declares the settlement binding
and the
settlement agreement becomes final, it is the Foundation's task
to distribute
the settlement amounts to the investors that are entitled
thereto.
(i) The expression "Shell" as used in this release indicates
the two
former parent companies, i.e. The Shell Transport and Trading
Company, Ltd.,
(formerly: The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company, plc.) and
Shell
Petroleum N.V. (the successor company to Royal Dutch Petroleum
Company).
A copy of the amended petition should be available shortly on
the
Foundation website: http://www.shellsettlement.com.

Contact:

For more information please contact: Stichting Shell Reserves
Compensation Foundation: Rob Okhuijsen, +31-6-26216773,
r.okhuijsen@m-o.nl; Shell Media Relations: The Netherlands and
European Press, +31-70-377-8750; London Media office,
+44-207-934-3505