Shell proposes shift, dropping “Royal Dutch” from name

Shell, Europe’s largest energy company, said Monday that it was proposing to move its headquarters to Britain from the Netherlands and make major changes in its share ownership and tax status, including dropping “Royal Dutch” from its name.

The moves are intended to make the company, whose share price has lagged rivals, more appealing to investors, and they come less than a month after an activist investor, Daniel Loeb, suggested changes to the company’s structure. In the Netherlands,

where Shell has an enormous presence, the government said it “very much regrets” the announcement.

In Britain, where the government has struggled to demonstrate that its separation from the European Union can provide a boost to business, the business minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, welcomed the shift as “a clear vote of confidence in the British economy.”

Among the changes announced by the company, top management, including CEO Ben van Beurden, would move to Britain, and the headquarters would be in London. The company’s current dual British and

Dutch share structure would also be melded into a single share.

The changes will come up for approval at a general meeting of shareholders scheduled for Dec. 10.

The company said it would drop “Royal Dutch” from its name, noting that “the company anticipates it will no longer meet the conditions for using the designation.”

“The Cabinet very much regrets that Shell wants to move its headquarters to the United Kingdom,” Stef Blok, the Dutch minister for economy and environment, said in a statement. He added that the government was

“in conversation” with Shell’s top management about the consequences for jobs and investment decisions.

The proposed changes appear to be an effort by management to enhance the appeal of the company’s shares as Shell, now based in The Hague, tries to navigate the difficult transition to cleaner energy from fossil fuels. Jessica Uhl, Shell’s chief financial officer, said recently that the company had not done well at explaining its strategy to investors.

Such shortcomings were highlighted recently in a letter that Loeb, CEO of Third Point, a New