Shell: built for comfort, not speed Two weeks ago, Shell dropped a doozy of a profit warning: a billion-dollar miss against earnings expectations, assorted projects gone awry, low gas prices, more bad news on refining. Whoopsie. The share price today? Right where it was before the announcement, despite a swooning world market. Perhaps Shell has managed a public relations miracle, convincing the markets that the woes detailed in the warning are details in a bigger, better picture. Certainly, investors are wild to hear the plan for structural change, given Shell's reputation of unproductive spending. Deutsche Bank estimates the group's return on capital employed at about 10 per cent, below even the poor standards set by European competitors BP and Total. On Thursday Shell's new chief executive, Ben van Beurden, had a chance to make his case, along with the presentation of the full results. Work in the Alaskan Arctic will pause, at least for this year. Not a big surprise, but a tricky project shelved. Tick. Capital spending for 2014 will drop $3bn from $38bn. Then, a promise of $15bn in asset disposals in 2014 and 2015, a little above the $6bn pace of past years, according to management. It's a nice little list, but the changes are incremental. The key thing Mr van Beurden said - against a background of sharply rising volatility - was about the dividend. Profits plunged but dividends will swell to 47 cents for the current quarter, up 4 per cent. That amounts to a 5.2 per cent yield, and the company is expected to generate the cash flow to cover that. The most important positive feature of the status quo has been affirmed. Message received. The shares were up 3 per cent on Thursday. Shell has reminded a spooked market that it is a big, dividend-paying lump of financial comfort food. That's enough, for now.