ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC PUBLISHES SECOND QUARTER 2021 PRESS RELEASE
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"We are stepping up our shareholder distributions today, increasing dividends and starting share buybacks, while we continue to invest for the future of energy. The quality of Shell’s operational and financial delivery and strengthened balance sheet have given the Board confidence to rebase the dividend per share from Q2 2021 onwards to 24 US cents. We are also launching $2 billion of share buybacks, which is targeted to be completed by the end of this year.
Total shareholder distributions for 2021 are expected to be around the middle of the 20-30% range of CFFO from the previous four quarters. Our progressive dividend policy to grow dividends per share by 4% annually, subject to Board approval, remains unchanged."
Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden
STEPPING UP DISTRIBUTIONS TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS
Another quarter of strong operational and financial delivery, with $14.2 billion CFFO excl. WC and $5.5 billion Adj. Earnings.
Shell moves to the next phase of the capital allocation framework, consistent with our Powering Progress strategy:
Dividend rebased to 24 US cents per share, an increase of over 38% from Q1 2021; maintaining ~4% annual growth
Share buybacks targeted at $2 billion in the second half of 2021
Targeting AA credit metrics through the cycle; $65 billion net debt milestone retired
Disciplined cash capex: remains below $22 billion in 2021.