The two companies said Monday that Shell shareholders will vote Jan. 27 and BG shareholders will vote the next day, the final step in the Anglo-Dutch company’s offer to buy out its smaller British rival that would create the global leader in trading liquefied natural gas (LNG).
If both sides approve the deal, it would take about 10 business days for BG’s shares to be delisted and absorbed into Shell, so the merger is expected be complete sometime in mid-February. But there are questions whether the transaction actually will go through.
When the proposed merger was announced in April it was valued at just under $70 billion, one of the biggest deals involving two energy companies in a decade. Shell was seen as a giant that could afford to wait out what was at the time seen as only a temporary depression in oil prices, and was big enough to absorb companies such as BG that weren’t big enough to avoid losing money.
Related: Saudi Arabia Continues to Ramp Up Oil Output in Face of Market Glut
In fact, by merging with BG, Shell was seen as streamlining its own operations by eliminating redundant spending. At the time, the deal was seen as a harbinger of additional mergers in which strong companies remained strong in the face of low energy prices by consolidating the fossil fuel industry.