Royal Dutch Shell Plc (LON:RDSA), today announced 3Q 2018 unaudited results.
| SUMMARY OF UNAUDITED RESULTS | |||||||||
| Quarters | $ million | Nine months | |||||||
| Q3 2018 | Q2 2018 | Q3 2017 | %1 | Definition | 2018 | 2017 | % | ||
| 5,839 | 6,024 | 4,087 | +43 | Income/(loss) attributable to shareholders | 17,762 | 9,170 | +94 | ||
| 5,570 | 5,226 | 3,698 | +51 | CCS earnings attributable to shareholders | Note 2 | 16,499 | 8,999 | +83 | |
| (54) | 535 | (405) | Of which: Identified items | A | 783 | (2,462) | |||
| 5,624 | 4,691 | 4,103 | +37 | CCS earnings attributable to shareholders excluding identified items | 15,716 | 11,461 | +37 | ||
| 169 | 121 | 105 | Add: CCS earnings attributable to non-controlling interest | 411 | 324 | ||||
| 5,793 | 4,812 | 4,208 | +38 | CCS earnings excluding identified items | 16,127 | 11,785 | +37 | ||
| Of which: | |||||||||
| 2,292 | 2,305 | 1,282 | Integrated Gas | 7,036 | 3,632 | ||||
| 1,886 | 1,457 | 562 | Upstream | 4,894 | 1,441 | ||||
| 2,010 | 1,660 | 2,668 | Downstream | 5,436 | 7,686 | ||||
| (395) | (610) | (304) | Corporate | (1,239) | (974) | ||||
| 12,092 | 9,500 | 7,582 | +59 | Cash flow from operating activities | 31,064 | 28,375 | +9 | ||
| (4,082) | 29 | (3,912) | Cash flow from investing activities | (8,347) | (7,364) | ||||
| 8,010 | 9,529 | 3,670 | Free cash flow | H | 22,717 | 21,011 | |||
| 0.70 | 0.72 | 0.50 | +40 | Basic earnings per share ($) | 2.14 | 1.12 | +91 | ||
| 0.67 | 0.63 | 0.45 | +49 | Basic CCS earnings per share ($) | B | 1.99 | 1.10 | +81 | |
| 0.68 | 0.56 | 0.50 | +36 | Basic CCS earnings per share excl. identified items ($) | 1.89 | 1.40 | +35 | ||
| 0.47 | 0.47 | 0.47 | – | Dividend per share ($) | 1.41 | 1.41 | – | ||
CCS earnings attributable to shareholders excluding identified items were $5.6 billion, compared with $4.1 billion in the third quarter 2017. Earnings primarily benefited from increased realised oil, gas and LNG prices as well as higher contributions from trading in Integrated Gas, partly offset by lower margins in Downstream, higher deferred tax charges in Upstream and adverse currency exchange effects.
Cash flow from operating activities for the third quarter 2018 was $12.1 billion, which included negative working capital movements of $2.6 billion, compared with $7.6 billion in the third quarter 2017, which included negative working capital movements of $1.3 billion[i]. Excluding working capital movements, cash flow from operations of $14.7 billion mainly reflected increased earnings and higher dividends received.
Total dividends distributed to shareholders in the quarter were $3.9 billion. In October, the first tranche of the share buyback programme was completed, with almost 61 million A ordinary shares bought back for cancellation for an aggregate consideration of $2.0 billion. Today, Shell launches the second tranche of the share buyback programme, with a maximum aggregate consideration of $2.5 billion in the period up to and including January 28, 2019.
Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden commented:
“Good operational delivery across all Shell businesses produced one of our strongest-ever quarters, with cash flow from operations of $14.7 billion, excluding working capital movements. Our strong financial performance allowed us to cover the cash dividend, interest payments, share buybacks and to further pay down debt.
Our strategy remains on track. We have completed the first tranche of share buybacks, in line with our intention to purchase $25 billion of our shares by the end of 2020, and today I’m pleased to announce the second tranche. Meanwhile, the transformation of our portfolio continued, with further divestments of non-strategic assets and the final investment decision on LNG Canada.”
