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Shell warns on 2013 profits

Royal Dutch Shell has issued a profits warning after poor fourth quarter trading
January 17, 2014

The share price of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) clicked into reverse after the Anglo-Dutch energy giant issued a profits warning ahead of publication of its full-year results on 30 January.

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Shell cited “weak industry conditions in downstream oil products, higher exploration expenses and lower upstream volumes” through the fourth quarter of 2013. Matters weren’t helped by maintenance work over-runs, higher exploration costs and ongoing security issues in Nigeria. The group now anticipates profits (on a current cost of supplies basis) for the quarter to be about $2.2bn (£1.3bn) and profits for 2013 as a whole to be $16.8bn. Though not wholly unexpected, this is hardly the type of group performance that Ben van Beurden would have been hoping for in his maiden full-year results as Shell’s chief executive.