Deals
Biggest Oil Deal's Risk Narrows to Record as Shell Pushes Ahead
- BG's shares are at smallest discount to Shell's offer price
- Takeover received Australia antitrust approval this month
This article is for subscribers only.
BG Group Plc’s discount to Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s takeover offer is the narrowest since the transaction was announced in April as the likelihood increases that the biggest oil deal of the decade will go through.
BG shares were 7.8 percent lower Monday than the price implied by Shell’s offer to buy the company, about half the discount reached in August. Shell has received approvals for three of the five preconditions to the acquisition, including one this month from Australia’s antitrust authority, meaning the window for some investors to cash in on the discount is starting to close, according to William Hares, a London-based oil analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.