By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – On the day that shareholders of Royal Dutch Shell (LON:) PLC voted to maneuver the corporate’s headquarters to London from The Hague, the corporate despatched a letter to the Dutch prime minister to melt the blow.

Signed by Shell CEO Ben van Beurden, the letter stated Shell’s departure had been “a troublesome message for us to announce,” given the corporate had greater than a century of historical past.

However the letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte outlined the various tasks and actions Shell will proceed within the Netherlands, together with retaining 8,500 staff, and the division-level administration of Shell’s upstream (manufacturing), renewable vitality and tasks & expertise divisions.

Shell has stated its shift to Britain would imply simply 9 workers, together with CEO Van Beurden, would depart the Netherlands.

“On this letter, we want to affirm our dedication to the Netherlands,” Van Beurden, who’s Dutch, wrote. “Shell has the ambition to be, each by its personal investments and thru cooperation with others, one of many largest drivers of the vitality transition within the Netherlands.”

Shell’s plans embrace serving to to construct the 750MW Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind venture, scheduled for completion in 2023, and the corporate is in talks over a hydrogen manufacturing facility at its Pernis refinery in Rotterdam, Europe’s largest.

Greater than 99% of Shell shareholders voted on Friday to approve the transfer to London. The corporate’s board should meet as soon as extra to make a ultimate resolution, with the changeover probably happening in early 2022.

However the end result appears a foregone conclusion: On Nov. 30 Van Beurden listed his property in Wassenaar, a complicated suburb of The Hague, on the market with an asking worth of 6.5 million euros ($7.35 million).

($1 = 0.8840 euros)