Shareholders to vote on Shell-BG merger in January

Shell and BG Group, parties in a proposed $70 billion merger deal, have sought the approval of the High Court to publish its scheme document and convene the related shareholder meetings, where the shareholders will vote whether to accept the merger or not.

The move follows satisfaction of the final pre-condition to the recommended combination last week, when Shell’s $70 billion takeover offer for UK’s energy firm BG Group received the unconditional merger clearance from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

This was the final regulatory clearance that was a pre-condition to the combination. Other pre-conditional clearances had already been received from the authorities in Australia, Brazil and the European Union.

“Following High Court approval, the scheme document will be published as soon as practicable, which is currently expected to be on 22 December 2015,” the companies said in a joint statement on Monday.

Subject to approval of the UK Listing Authority, the Shell shareholder circular and prospectus are expected to be published at the same time as the scheme document.

Shell and BG shareholder meetings to vote for, or against, the proposed combination are expected to be convened on 27 and 28 January 2016, respectively.

Offshore Energy Today Staff