NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Oil giant Shell (RDS-A; RDS-B) agreed to buy U.K. smaller rival BG Group in a deal worth 47 billion pounds ($70 billion). As part of the recommended deal Shell would pay a mix of cash and shares that would value each BG share at around 1,350 pence ($20), a premium of around 52% to the 90-day trading average. European stocks hit a 15-year high after the announcement, with stocks in other oil and gas companies in the Europe STOXX 600 index jumping by 5.5% Wednesday morning on hopes that more deals follow. Also: French media giant Vivendi is pondering buying U.K. pay TV group Sky, Reuters reports quoting sources. Sky has a market value of 17.6 billion pounds ($26 billion) but could cost Vivendi as much as 28 billion pounds including debt, the sources said. Shop prices in the U.K. fell at their fastest rate since 2006, data from the British Retail Consortium showed. Retail prices in March were 2.1% lower than a year earlier, after having fallen by 1.7% in February. The IMF has warned that a long period of stagnation could be on the cards for the world's top economies, which in turn will make it more difficult for them to ease their debt burden.
from Latest TSC Headlines http://ift.tt/1Fl0FNX
No comments:
Post a Comment