(Reuters) – Arrow Energy (AOE.AX) shareholders approved a $3.05 billion takeover by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and PetroChina’s (0857.HK) on Wednesday, clearing the way for a final legal go-ahead due later this week.
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 deal cleared a major regulatory hurdle on Wednesday 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 July 16.
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 (LNG) plant on Curtis Island, Queensland, the companies said previously.
Shell and PetroChina will each own 50 percent of the gas produced by the LNG plant and the Anglo-Dutch oil major said it was likely to sell its gas to China.
^> Shell and PetroChina offered A$4.70 a share for most of Arrow’s domestic coal seam gas assets. Arrow shareholders are also set to receive one share in Dart Energy, for each share in Arrow.
Arrow shares, which have risen more than 20 percent so far this calendar year, last traded at A$4.99.
(Reporting by Michael Smith; Editing by Ed Davies and Balazs Koranyi)
Philippines radio commentator shot dead
June 15 (Reuters) – A radio commentator was shot dead in the Philippines late on Monday while sitting as a judge in a local singing contest, becoming the third journalist murdered in the country this year, police said on Tuesday.
Desiderio Camangyan, 52, a public affairs radio anchor in Mati, about 1,000 kilometres southeast of Manila, was shot twice from behind by a lone gunman, whose motive was not immediately clear, Querubin Manalang, a spokesman for the regional police office in Davao told reporters.
The Philippines was the deadliest country for journalists in the world in 2009, accounting for 37 of 132 journalists and support staff that were killed or died while working around the world, the International News Safety Institute (INSI) said. [ID:nLDE6050SA]
“We’re still investigating the motive for the killing, whether it was work-related,” Manalang said, adding the radio commentator was known for his tirades against local politicians during last month’s elections.
“We’re asking his family, friends and colleagues if he received death threats before he was gunned down,” Manalang said.
Camangyan is the third radio commentator in the southern island of Mindanao to be killed this year. Three others had survived assassination attempts in the northern Luzon island. [ID:nSGE63D0BV]
The deaths last year included at least 30 killed in a politically motivated massacre of 57 people in southern Maguindanao province in what was the country’s worst election-related crime. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Rosemarie Francisco and Balazs Koranyi)