Arrow shareholders approve $3bn takeover
ARROW Energy shareholders approved a $3.05bn (£1.9bn) takeover by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina clearing the way for a final legal go-ahead.
Shareholders voted to demerge Arrow’s international assets into Dart Energy, a newly listed entity, and to sell the bulk of the company, including the coveted coal-seam gas assets to a consortium of Shell and PetroChina in an agreed deal.
The agreement cleared a major regulatory hurdle after the National Development and Reform Commission of China recommended the offer and waived a requirement to obtain clearance from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China.
The last hurdle for the deal will be approval from the Federal Court of Australia, which is due to rule on the spin-off on 16 July.
The Shell-PetroChina joint venture will integrate Arrow’s Australian assets with Shell’s existing CSG assets and Shell’s site for a planned Liquefied Natural Gas plant on Curtis Island, Queensland, the companies said previously.
Shell and PetroChina will each own 50 per cent of the gas produced by the LNG plant and the Anglo-Dutch oil major said it was likely to sell its gas to China.