Giant oil firm Royal Dutch/Shell is to unify the boards of its Dutch and British holding companies as a "minimum" concession to shareholders who want change, according to a senior industry source.
"Both boards accept now that the status quo is not an option," the source told Reuters this week, six weeks into an internal review of the issue. "They know that the absolute minimum they are going to get away with is a unified board."
The source said even more radical change than this, including a full merger or take-over of one holding company by the other, was also still under consideration.
Although unable to say how much support there was for such further proposals, the source said that Jeroen van der Veer, chairman of the committee of managing directors and now the company's number one executive, was now a key "radicaliser".