# RDS-B Royal Dutch Shell



## rossco12 (Dec 4, 2013)

I picked up 100 shares on January 11 at US $39.68 in my work RRSP. So far so good. I bought pretty much at the bottom of the Canadian dollar, maybe a risky move, but I couldn't resist at that price. Obviously currency conversion is a large risk, but I justified it this way: the conditions that facilitate the rise of our dollar should likewise facilitate a much greater rise in the share prices of well managed oil giants. Anyone else holding or buying?


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

The CAD currency effect is not with USD. It is with Pound or Euros. The USD is simply an intermediary in the overall scheme of things.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

i'm not against buying RDS dot B at this low price although the jury is still out on any possible trough in multinational oil stock prices. However there are a couple of little wrinkles here.

1) altaRed is right. RDS is a british/dutch company with a dual split share structure. RDS.B is the british twin while RDS.A is the dutch twin (note, the 2 are fraternal twins with different DNA, they're not identical twins.) Therefore the currency link for dot B is CAD/british pound, not CAD/USD.

2) because great britain does not impose withholding tax on dividends sent abroad, there is no british withholding tax on RDS.B. For canadians, these ADR shares won't attract any US withholding tax either. For this reason, RDS.B is a fairly popular holding in TFSA accounts rather than RRSP accounts. It's one of the few USD denominated securities that can be held in TFSAs without any foreign tax whatsoever.

here's a list of british ADRs with no withholding tax:

http://topforeignstocks.com/foreign-adrs-list/


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