Shell expects new projects to generate a torrent of cash – as much as US$35 billion a year by 2025 – that it can use to enormously boost shareholder returns. Higher distributions could come in the form of both dividends and buybacks. It is now undergoing a US$25 billion repurchase program set to end in 2020, and said it expects to increase the dividend per share “when there is line of sight to the completion” of the programme.
(June 4): Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to shower its investors in money, pledging returns of US$125 billion ($171 billion) between 2021 and 2025 – twice as much as a decade earlier.
The oil and gas major says it can pull off this feat with crude at US$60 a barrel and only a small increase in capital spending, an aggressive move to keep shareholders on its side while it weathers a disruptive transition to lower-carbon energy. The Anglo-Dutch oil major has already sought to stand out from some of its peers, who are boosting spending to get more barrels of oil and gas.
