In the news: MOFCOM clears Shell-BG deal, Alibaba buys SCMP and Volkswagen gets sued by Chinese NGO
December 15, 2015 | BY
Katherine JoThis week the Shell-BG merger received its final regulatory approval in China, Alibaba bought the Hong Kong newspaper for $266 million, an environmental group filed a case against VW and China's two largest shipping SOEs combined
Royal Dutch Shell's acquisition of BG Group, which was announced on April 8 and is the biggest in the sector in a decade, has been approved by China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). The deal has already been cleared in Australia, Brazil and the EU, and transforms Shell into the world's top LNG trader and a major offshore oil producer focused on Brazil's rapidly-developing sub-salt oil basin that rivals Exxon Mobil, the largest international oil company. Shell announced it may cut about 2,800 jobs globally from the combined group. This $70 billion deal makes the combined group the biggest LNG supplier to China, and was cleared without any conditions. Many had predicted that the group should be prepared for remedies, but the Shell CEO had apparently met with the MOFCOM president to discuss the deal. Sources warn, however, that China can use this to leverage long-term gas supply contracts.
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