LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Brazilian competition authorityCADE gave preliminary approval without restriction to RoyalDutch Shell's acquisition of smaller rival BG,the regulator said on Wednesday.
BG said separately that if no appeals were lodged orreferrals made in the next 15 days, CADE's clearance of the $70billion merger would become final.
BG also said that pre-conditional approvals were alsorequired from the European Union, Australia and China for themerger to be completed.
"The filing process for each of these is under way, and thetransaction is on track to complete in early 2016," it said. (Reporting by Ron Bousso, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; editingby Jason Neely)
