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