THE HAGUE (Alliance News) - The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said that it will not oppose the proposed acquisition by Royal Dutch Shell PLC of BG Group PLC.
Royal Dutch Shell agreed in early April to acquire BG Group in a cash and stock deal valued at about GBP47.0 billion.
"The ACCC's view is that the proposed acquisition would be unlikely to substantially lessen competition in the wholesale natural gas market, in either Queensland or eastern Australia more broadly," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said today.
The ACCC considered whether the proposed acquisition would reduce the supply of gas, or reduce competition to supply gas, to domestic customers by aligning Shell's interest in Arrow Energy with BG's LNG facilities in Queensland.
"The ACCC concluded that as Arrow is not currently focussed on supplying domestic customers, and appears unlikely to be so in the future, aligning Arrow with an LNG operator would not change competition for the supply of gas to domestic customers," Mr Sims said.
The proposed acquisition is also conditional on approval by China's competition authority and Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board. It has already received merger clearance by competition authorities in the US, Brazil, Europe, Japan and Korea.
Separately, BG Group confirmed that the recommended cash and share offer for the company to be made by Royal Dutch Shell has received unconditional merger clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Shell said that the filing process in China continues to progress well and the combination remains on track for completion in early 2016.
Commenting on the ACCC clearance, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden, said, "The addition of BG's integrated gas assets in Australia to Shell's global portfolio is one of the main strategic drivers behind the recommended combination, making ACCC approval a major step forward for the deal."
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
