The European Commission has given unconditional merger clearance for Shell’s $70billion offer for BG Group.
The approval is one of the five regulatory clearances that are pre-conditions to the merger and this is the second pre-condition to be satisfied, following the clearance obtained from the Brazilian competition authority, CADE, in July.
In June, US regulators, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), gave the green light for the biggest merger in the energy sector in over a decade.
Other pre-conditional approvals are required from Australia (anti-trust and foreign investment) and China (anti-trust) and regulatory filings have been submitted for each of these approvals.
The deal also requires support from both BG Group and Shell shareholders.