Extending windfall tax could take Shell across the Atlantic, warns ALEX BRUMMER

Shell boss Wael Sawan has trouble pleasing all investors all the time. Despite better-than-expected first-quarter profits of £6.2bn, shareholders are unhappy.

One group demands bigger payments, another criticizes Sawan for rolling back climate change targets and wants better progress on emissions targets set in Paris.

Sawan’s goal is to strengthen Shell’s valuation in London. Currently, with a market capitalization of £182 billion, it is behind pharmaceutical innovator AstraZeneca, worth £189 billion.

The Shell boss has warned that if the oil major’s valuation gap with US cohorts such as Exxon Mobil has not closed by 2025, then the company would consider “all options”.

That could mean moving its stock listing to New York.

It is frustrating for Shell that it is less appreciated in Europe than the US oil majors. Big US companies have doubled down on fossil fuels despite Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which directed huge subsidies to companies investing in net zero emissions.

Sawan’s suggestions, backed by former chief executive Ben van Beurden, to move to New York should be politically unacceptable.

In France, the assertive Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has stressed how important it is for Total to maintain its main listing in Paris.

Command and control of companies in most cases is transferred abroad with share prices.

It would help if Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Labor shadow Rachel Reeves and their Dutch counterparts showed the same determination.

Opposition parties in the UK continue to make inflammatory comments about extending windfall taxes to Big Oil and closing loopholes.

Such interventions can only leave a political cloud over energy investment, exaggerating the valuation gap, and making a Shell exit more likely.

Politicians would do better to focus on the contribution of already high taxes to the public purse and the boost that dividend payments provide to pensions.

Shell is reaping the rewards of focusing on liquefied natural gas along with oil refining and trading.

Paradoxically, disruptions in the Red Sea and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining facilities benefited him, says the group’s finance chief, Sinead Gorman.

For now, Shell investors will have to make do with a £2.7bn share buyback amid calls from some for better distributions in the second half of the year amid abundant cash flows.

Sawan’s push for lower costs and better operational performance should also leave more money on the table for green initiatives.

Revolving door

You lose some and you gain some.

At a time when the Government and the City are so focused on persuading UK pension funds to support London markets and start-ups, royal banker Coutts is seen indirectly owned by taxpayers in a 28.7 per cent, transferring £2bn of assets into global investments. It’s not a very inspiring story.

A more sensible approach might be to leave funds in undervalued UK shares and wait for the rebound that is sure to come.

Everything in economics is cyclical, even if you have to wait for the “Kondratieff wave,” a 50-year supercycle, to come into play.

There is no shortage of interesting investment opportunities in the UK, despite the widespread opinion that the country is doomed because of Brexit.

Data from consultancy EY shows Britain’s brilliant science and technology sectors attracted 985 foreign investment projects last year, an increase of 6 per cent, while Germany and France saw sharp declines. QED.

Health heroes

AstraZeneca’s latest oncological advance could not fail to catch my attention.

A combination compound, Calquence, has been shown to be effective in treating mantle cell lymphoma, an aggressive form of the disease.

It occurs as a result of a mutation that threatens the survival of people who are diagnosed late with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

As someone successfully treated over the last year for an early diagnosis of this cancer, we can only be grateful to the scientists at Astra.

Big pharma is a favorite target of critics of high prices and easy prey for litigators. But it does well.