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Bold deal leaves Shell Boss as Ben van Browne and Lund as a footnote: An agreed £47 billion takeover by Shell is set to consign BG Group Chief Executive Helge Lund to the ranks of history’s footnote guys, alongside William Henry Harrison, U.S. President for one month in 1841. The Norwegian has served only slightly longer as Boss of BG as a fully independent business. Shell has agreed to buy its smaller rival for £13.50 a share, a 50% premium to the price on Tuesday, when news of the deal was already leaking. That is less generous than might appear. First, because two-thirds of the price is in Shell shares. Second, because BG has been hit by challenges greater than the drop in the oil price, reflected in a 48% peak-to-trough slump in the share price. The matter-of-fact Mr van Beurden must justify a deal only mildly accretive to Shell’s earnings by 2017. The best way will be to beat a pretax synergies target of $2.5 billion a year and sell assets earmarked for disposal for more than their combined price tag of $30 billion. Absent a competing bid, the Dutchman can at least claim to have stolen a march on rivals such as ExxonMobil. But without a recovery in the oil price, the advantage may prove to be illusory

Jade emperor: Robert Walters and its eponymous Chief Executive, who sports a jade bracelet in preference to a tie, sit in a sweet spot. This is thanks to a niche in hiring compliance and back-office staff on salaries of £40,000 to £150,000 a year. City types of yore wore sharp suits and urged clients to fill their boots. They bear clipboards and cite Financial Conduct Authority rules with the relish of a theologian quoting a juicy passage of Deuteronomy. Robert Walters retrenched less severely than some rivals in the downturn. Consequent operational gearing has emboldened analysts to lift year-end profit forecasts 7%. If you are confident about the world’s economic prospects, the shares are worth owning on a forward earnings ratio of 22 times. If the sight of recruiters’ stock challenging pre-crisis peaks strikes you as ominous, you will run for cover instead.

U.K. banks stem domestic loan losses: U.K. banks’ losses from domestic loans plummeted last year to “exceptionally low” levels, in a trend that is expected to continue as the economic recovery gathers pace, according to Standard & Poor’s

Future oil sector mergers set to be more modest: The world’s largest oil and gas companies were slashing jobs and cutting spending. But their stock prices were sagging and Executives were under pressure to replenish reserves.

Shell set to cut North Sea and Arctic operations after mega-deal: Shell raised the prospect of withdrawing from the Arctic and scaling down its North Sea operations as it announced the largest deal in the industry for a decade – the £47 billion takeover of BG Group, which will focus the business more narrowly on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and deep water oil and gas production.

Brent slides on glut of American oil: Brent crude price fell by almost 5% in London trading after new data showed largest increase in the amount in oil in storage in the U.S. since 2001

UK new car registrations climbed in March In the UK, new car registrations registered a rise of 6.00% on a YoY basis, in March. In the previous month, new car registrations had risen 12.00%.

BoE’s credit conditions survey showed a decrease in credit demand among households in the UK The BoE’s credit conditions survey revealed that on the supply side, the availability of secured credit to households and total credit to the corporate sector in the UK remained almost unchanged during the first quarter of 2015. On the other side, demand for secured lending for house purchases and credit card lending from households in Britain decreased, while demand for lending from large corporates increased during the quarter.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 1.28% or $0.71 higher at $56.26 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract tumbled 6.01% or $3.55, to settle at $55.55 per barrel, reversing most of its two day rally, after the Energy Information Administration stated that crude oil stockpiles in the US surged by 10.9 million barrels to 482.4 million in the week ended April 3, the largest weekly jump since March 2001. Additionally, Saudi Arabia boosted its oil production in March to the highest in at least 12 years and stated that it would continue production near its record high of around 10 million barrels per day.

Poring over the details The consequences of Shell’s plans to acquire BG for £47bn include the Anglo-Dutch group becoming Brazil’s largest foreign oil company, outpacing production at ExxonMobil, currently the world’s biggest non-state oil group, according to some analysts. (FT)

Yes mate

This is a bold move by Royal Dutch Shell to buy assets at what it hopes is the bottom of the cycle. BG shares were languishing around 910p before the deal was announced, having traded over 1,500p a few years ago. Even after allowing for the takeover premium, BG is being acquired for 200p or so less than its previous peak value. BG has two core assets that have caught Shell's eye: the deep water fields offshore Brazil and the Queensland Curtis LNG scheme in Australia. Both these assets are in their early stages, with production modules due for delivery in Brazil over the next few years and the QC LNG plant having just started production around the end of last year. Shell, in common with other large oil companies, has found production volume growth hard to achieve in recent years. BG's expected increase in volumes will assist greatly. Cost benefits will be significant, and the $2.5bn so far identified will go a long way to reducing the initial dilution of returns caused by the deal. Combining the exploration teams will be a major source of synergies, but other areas like shipping and financing will also play their part. Assuming the deal goes through, Royal Dutch Shell's weight in the market indices will be significantly increased. Around 1.5bn new RDSB shares will be issued, increasing the total number of shares in issue by almost a quarter. Royal Dutch Shell's total weight in the FTSE 100 index will be approaching 9%, making the decision about what position UK equity fund managers hold in the stock possibly the most important item on their agendas. The cash flows RDSB will generate and the dividends it will pay are utterly unaffected by such considerations and here perhaps lies the opportunity. RDSB has initially fallen on the news of the deal. That means, all else being equal, the yield on Shell shares has risen. The company has announced it intends to pay $1.88 in dividends per share for 2015 and at least as much in 2016. At the current exchange rate of $1.49 and a price of around 2,100p for RDSB shares, that works out at a yield of circa 6% (variable and not guaranteed) for 2015 and as much, or more, for the following year. BG Group brings longer-term growth in cash flow to Shell, due to those synergies and its rising volumes in Brazil and Australia. So long as energy prices suffer no further collapse, Shell's capacity to pay future dividends should be enhanced. At a time when UK gilts offer yields as little as 1.6% (for a ten year bond) Shell's yield stands out like a beacon. Nothing is risk-free in the stock market and for Shell, the biggest risk looks to be the oil price. A further sharp fall could compromise the company's dividend paying capacity, but oil prices have already more than halved. And there are more people on the planet today, demanding energy, than there were yesterday and tomorrow will see another turn of the ratchet. That leaves us relaxed about longer-term energy prices, even if the short-term is unpred

European oil and gas stocks hit 2015 high as the sector is biggest outperformer following Shell's $70 bln deal to buy BG Group ** Stoxx 600 Oil & Gas up 6 pct and poised for best day in more than 6 years

I will make a few brief comments about todays mega bid and add more after the webcast later. Readers will know that I have always said that BG wasnt too big to be bid for, primarily as although $70bn rules out all but the largest suitors, it breaks into bite sized mouthfuls for asset sale purposes. Actually Shell is going to assimilate most of the key parts of BG but the group treasury will have much to be getting on with as BvB has identified at least $30bn of assets up for auction. Add to that $2.5bn p/a of synergies and the ability to high-grade the portfolio and I believe that Shell have made a very smart move here. The bid plays to their strategy of concentrating on integrated gas and deep-water exploration and development and it is not in my view a bet on the oil price at least not primarily. With disposals Shell’s portfolio will undoubtedly look better adding Australia and the Atlantic basins into the process and as has been mentioned replicates the Repsol deal on integrated gas. Finally for what it’s worth I dont think that Shell placed a very high valuation on Brazil, it just suits. The jewel in the crown will be the LNG business which combines two of the best operated companies in the sector and will be a powerhouse adding the Pacific Rim to Shell’s strength globally. The numbers are quite compelling as well, 25% is added to proved oil and gas reserves and 20% to production and the deal is ‘mildly’ accretive to earnings in year to 2017 and strongly accretive after that. In addition, the group will have a strong cash flow engine and generate $15-20bn p/a which will cover dividends, a $25bn a year buy back and pay back the equity portion of the deal.

LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - British banks expect demand for mortgages to rise in the next three months, a Bank of England survey showed, in another sign the housing market is regaining speed. However, lending to companies was expected to remain flat in the April-June period, extending a year-long stretch of stagnant growth in corporate lending. Stricter controls, and the impact of a run-up in house prices, reduced mortgage lending for much of last year. But mortgage approvals have picked up over the last few months, according to previous BoE data. Demand for credit card lending edged down in the first three months of this year after seeing the biggest increase during the fourth quarter since records began in early 2007. The BoE said lenders expected the availability of mortgages to increase slightly in the second quarter, and demand to increase after falling significantly in the previous two quarters. Lending to businesses remains soft, with banks reporting no change in the availability of credit to businesses for a fourth successive quarter. They expected it to be unchanged between April and June. The BoE has long highlighted the lack of credit for companies as a hindrance to Britain's economic recovery. Despite the flat outlook for corporate lending overall, banks expect demand for credit from small businesses to increase significantly in the second quarter, the survey showed. The rate of interest charged on mortgages and unsecured lending is expect to narrow significantly in the second quarter. Data released by the Bank last week showed net lending to businesses in February rose by 440 million pounds, down sharply from January's 1.8 billion pounds. The BoE survey was conducted between Feb. 13 and March 6. (Reporting by Andy Bruce and William Schomberg)

French media group Vivendi is looking at a possible acquisition of pay-TV and broadband group Sky, according to sources cited by The Guardian. Sky could fetch a price tag of as much as £28bn including debt.

Easyjet has reported an acceleration in annual passenger growth in March. Passengers, as measured by the number of earned seats flown, rose at a year-on-year rate of 7.5% last month to 5.49m, compared with the 6.1% growth seen in February.

As Western sanctions lifted, Iran heads East A week after six major powers found tentative agreement on Iran's nuclear programme, top Iranian officials are heading to Beijing to discuss oil projects with large energy company executives. A delegation plans to meet the management of Sinopec, China’s largest oil refiner

Ryanair passenger numbers leap by 28%: The number of people flying with Ryanair jumped by more than a quarter last month, as the budget airline’s efforts to change its controversial image appear to be working.

U.K. regions lift European real estate prices: European commercial property prices grew by a record 7.8% in the fourth quarter of last year, fuelled by the ongoing recovery in the U.K.’s regional property markets