¶ … Royal Dutch Shell PLC A Brief Recent History of Royal Dutch Shell PLC

Reason Behind Choosing

Information Gathering and Accounting Business techniques

Result, Analysis, Conclusion & Recommendations

SWOT Analysis of RDSP

Porter's Five Forces Analysis of the Chosen Company

Financial Analysis of RDSP

Finance is the name of allocating the funds at a place from where the likelihood of receiving a good return is bright (Bragg, S2006). Organization is basically referred to a place wherein hundreds of people work together just to achieve a specific goal (Cinnamon, & Larsen, B.2006). The goal may be of two fold, like the goal can be economical or can be non-economical. According to the organizational officials and analysts, investment decisions are always tough to take as far as an organization is concerned (Cinnamon, & Larsen, B.2006). The economic decisions include ad hoc research, analysis and lots of study as well. The essence of risk is always associated with the investment decision, or precisely it can be said that risk is in the heart of the investment (Cinnamon, & Larsen, B.2006). According to 95% of the people, analysts and organizational officials, whatever the organization does in to increase the shareholders equity.

Shareholders are known as the real owners of a company that is why during the investment they analyze the company critically to take the best action they can (Cinnamon, & Larsen, B.2006). The Kinds of analysis are of manifold like the investment and financial analysis, character analysis, rating analysis and credit analysis (Cinnamon, & Larsen, B.2006). The analysis pertains to the investors called the investment analysis. This work will reveal the basics of investment analysis. The brainchild of this work is to present a business analysis of chosen organization against its peer companies. The company on which this work has based on is Royal Dutch Shell PLC. This particular assignment has been broken into different parts. Let's now start the first part of the assignment which is about the recent history of the company.

A Brief Recent History of Royal Dutch Shell PLC

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSP) which is commonly known as Shell is a global oil and Gas Company with its headquartering located in The Hague and registered office at the Shell Center, London United Kingdom (UK) (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com) . Shell is known the largest energy company and has been count as the second largest company of the world in terms of revenue recognition. Shell is one of those oil and gas companies which are diversified in almost every area of this particular industry like production, refining, distribution and market and exploitation (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). The company has its active operations in more than 90 countries around the globe and on average produces 3.1 million barrels of oil per day (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). The company has 44,000 service stations spread in all over the world (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). The company is very productive in terms of recognizing the revenue and facilitating its shareholders is concerned. The large portfolio, both human and non-human portfolio enables the company to expand its network comprehensively. Te company has recorded net revenue amounted to U.S.$368.056 billion in the year 2010 and the net income of U.S.$20.474 billion in the same year (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). The company has over 100,000 employees across the globe with total assets worth U.S.$322.560 billion. The company's shares are actively traded in three stock exchange of the world which is London Stock Exchange (LSE), Euro next Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com).

The industry in which the Shell is operating is the oil and gas industry which is the most lucrative industry of the world (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). According to estimation 70% of the world revenue or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been recognized through this particular industry (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). The products which the company produces are all of oil and energy. The name of Shell is linked to the Transport and Sports as well (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). The Shell Brand is one of the best accustomed bartering symbols in the world. Known as the "pecten" afterwards the sea carapace Pecten maximus (the behemothic scallop), on which its architecture is based, the accepted adaptation of the cast was advised by Raymond Loewy and alien in 1971 (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). The company has five core businesses which predominantly are production and exploitation, gas and power,...

The company has been performing wonderfully well from last few decades even at the time of economic hardship this particular company made a record to report heavy amount of revenue even at that time as well. British Petroleum and Exxon Mobil are the two biggest competitors of Shell, but have not competed the level of service of Shell yet (Financial Statements of Shell, retrieved from www.shell.com). The mission statement of the company is "To continuously derive shareholder value by producing oil related products to the entire world." The vision statement of Shell is, "To continue the stories of success and maintain the level of the world's largest oil producing company." The next section is about the intentions behind choosing the project of shell and specifically reason behind choosing Shell Company for analysis.
Reason Behind Choosing

There is a definite reason behind every thing. The reason behind choosing the project and this particular company for the project is of manifold. The foremost reason behind chosen this topic is to broaden my understanding of the subject area which also extends my skills for my ongoing career path. Shell is the largest oil manufacturing company, so the stance of data collection becomes so easy for me to do a research on it. The biggest reason behind this activity is to pursue an ACCA certificate. I have worked for Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria from 2002 to 2008 as an Assistant Project Accountant for the Forados Yokri Integrated Project (FYIP). Apart from these things, the biggest reason behind choosing this particular project is that the current era is the era of analysis and I want to polish my skills by initiating such projects. The next section is about to define the research objectives and questions for this piece of work.

Research Objectives

The research objectives is of manifold which are mentioned below

• How effective is Shell's business and financial strategy over the three-year period under review?

• How did Shell fare in comparison to its competition (include BP's and Exxon Mobil's financial statement for the last three years)?

• Is the company positioned to meet future challenges/changes?

• How do Shell's financial ratios compare to its competitors (BP British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil)? Please include Three years financial statements (2008 to 2010) of Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil.

• How does the company's year on year performance measure over the 3-year period under review?

Research Approach

The approach to be adopted in carrying out this research project is as follows;

• Evaluate Shell business performance with the use of Porter's 5 Forces analyses models, SWOT, PESTEL etc.

• To research the indicators which are performing wonderfully in the context of the Oil and Gas industry and measure Shell success in achieving them?

• Compute the different financial ratios for Shell's over the review period to determine trends and financial performance.

• Review the performance of Shell's in comparison to its main competitors.

• To analyze the adequacy of its current and future strategy for the long-term business growth and sustainability.

Information Gathering and Accounting Business techniques

Organization is basically referred to a place wherein hundreds of people work together just to achieve a specific goal (Mona & Zeeshan, 2006). The goal may be of two fold, like the goal can be economical or can be non-economical (Leopard & Bernstein, 1999). According to the organizational officials and analysts, investment decisions are always tough to take as far as an organization is concerned. The economic decisions include ad hoc research; analysis and lots of study as well (Rees, 1995). Business and financial analysis of an organization will always be difficult and challenging because it needs heavy research and study to do a perfect research (Vernimmen, 2000). To do the research in a perfect manner compilation of data is very important.

Data collection method is the most difficult and time consuming method while making any research. There are a number of problems and issues associated with the data collection method. Some of these problems include the availability of relevant people who can answer the survey question with full concentration and the time it gets to complete this whole hectic and long process. The data which have been utilized to complete this report gathered from the annual and environmental report of the company covering the period from 2006-2010. Sufficient information regarding the stockpiles, share prices, press and release are available on the website of the company which is certainly very beneficial for the investor to…