Unit VI Essay – Stock Repurchases
Columbia Southern University
MBA 6081 - Corporate Finance
Stock Repurchases
This essay will summarize a short 2018 article published by Aparna Narayanan entitled,
"Royal Dutch Shell Finally Delivers Big Stock Buyback, But Shares Break Support.”
[ CITATION Nar18 \l 1033 ] The rest will analyze the importance of stable dividend policies,
determine reasons behind stock repurchases and finally, analyze how individual financial metrics
are specifically affected by stock repurchase plans and returns.
Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) began in 1833, and is currently tied with Exxon Mobile as the
number one integrated oil company (in terms of revenues). [ CITATION Dun21 \l 1033 ] The
founder, Marcus Samuel, was a London antiques dealer who diversified an import-export
business to meet the interior design need for decorating with seashells. After his passing in 1870,
his sons, Marcus Jr. and Samuel, continued expanding and innovating in the oil export business.
In the beginning, oil was shipped in terribly inefficient, cumbersome, and leaky wooden barrels.
The solution was simple; design, manufacture and delivery of a new type of ship, the oil tanker.
In 1892, Shell’s 5,000-ton Murex was the first oil tanker to sail the Suez Canal.[ CITATION
She21 \l 1033 ]
The energy and petrochemical market ebbs and flows with the global economy. Aparna
Narayanan documented Shell’s 2018 “massive stock buyback.” In 2016, the world was in the
midst of slumping oil prices. Shell took advantage of this and acquired their rival energy
company, BG Group, for $53B, making Shell the world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG)
company. The premise for the expansion was a world turning to less polluting sources of energy
such as LNG, an alternative to conventional petroleum-based fuels.[ CITATION Bou16 \l 1033 ]