* ABB nominates ex-Royal Dutch Shell boss as chairman
* Current chairman von Gruenberg has decided to step down
* Shares up 2.4 pct, outperform sector (Adds detail, market reaction, analyst comment)
ZURICH, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Swiss engineer ABB hasnamed former Royal Dutch Shell boss Peter Voser as itsnew chairman, a homecoming for a man who was previously financechief at the company.
Voser, a Swiss national, had been seen as a possiblecandidate to become chairman at Basel-based drugmaker Roche, where he is a board member.
At ABB, Voser will succeed Hubertus von Gruenberg, 72, whohas decided not to stand for re-election at its annualshareholder meeting next year.
Voser was finance director at ABB from 2002-2004 and servedas chief executive at Shell from 2009 to 2013.
He led the oil company from a position as a laggard in thewake of the 2004 reserves crisis to sector leader in the growingliquefied natural gas industry.
ABB serves companies in sectors including oil and gas. Despite a bigger-than-expected rise in third-quarter orders, ableaker global growth outlook is keeping the Swiss engineercautious about its prospects.
Vontobel analyst Panagiotis Spiliopoulos, who has a'buy' rating on the stock, said Voser's appointment was a "smartmove", which will make for an easy transition from vonGruenberg, who has been chairman since 2007.
Shares in ABB, which makes products such as industrialrobots and power grid transformers, were up 2.4 percent at 1100GMT, outperforming a 2.2 percent rise in the European industrialgoods and services index.
"I am honoured to be nominated as chairman of the board andlook forward to working with ABB's CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer, hisexecutive team and the board of directors," Voser said in astatement.
CEO Spiesshofer has been in the top job at ABB for 15months.
Voser is also on IBM's board, and was part of UBS's when the Swiss bank was shored up by the Swissgovernment in 2008.
(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Additional reporting CarolineCopley; Editing by Keith Weir)
