Shell shareholders approve $50 billion BG takeover

[Miles Archer]

Source: Reuters

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) shareholders approved its $50 billion takeover of BG Group (BG.L) on Wednesday, clearing the last main hurdle to creating the biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) trader in the world.

BG shareholders are also expected to approve one of the biggest deals in the energy sector in the past decade at a meeting on Thursday, a vote that would allow the two oil and gas companies to merge on Feb. 15.

Few investors have openly challenged the deal's strategic benefits for Shell. But with oil languishing near $30 a barrel and only a slow recovery forecast, some had questioned the viability of a deal that would increase Shell's debt burden.

Shares in BG were up 1.3 percent at 1325 GMT (8:25 a.m. ET), while Shell's B shares traded 0.5 percent lower, both outperforming a 0.9 percent fall in the European oil and gas index .SXEP and valuing Shell's cash and share offer at about $50 billion.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-bg-group-m-a-shell-idUSKCN0V51I3

[Brother Buzz]

1. When they initially struck the deal last year they were talking $70 billion

I'm guessing BG's stock has really been taking a beating in the last nine months