Royal Dutch/Shell shareholders plan to give the embattled oil giant's directors a rocky ride at its twin annual general meetings on June 28, despite the concessions it made to them last week.
Investors say they want to see clearer reporting lines and a simpler management structure at the world's third largest oil company. Shell sacked three directors this year for their part in a failure to communicate long standing problems with reserves bookings to shareholders.
On Thursday, Shell bowed to the pressure and outlined how it intended to approach this issue in a review that will take until November and could end up with a unified board or even a unified company. It also moved to abolish priority shares which gave directors the sole right to propose future executives.
One of the proposals on the Royal Dutch AGM voting form is usually a formality. It asks shareholders to agree "that the managing directors be discharged of responsibility in respect of their management for the year 2003," releasing them from any liability under Dutch law.
According to reports in the Observer Sunday newspaper, US shareholder activist group Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is recommending shareholders vote against this motion in a move to embarrass management.
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