殼牌或以460億英鎊收購BG

Royal Dutch Shell is in advanced talks to acquire BG Group for around £46bn ($68bn), in a deal that would expand the Anglo-Dutch group’s foothold in some of the world’s most exciting oil provinces and cement its dominance of the global trade in natural gas.

荷蘭皇家殼牌(Royal Dutch Shell)正就斥資約460億英鎊（合680億美元）收購英國天然氣集團(BG Group)與後者深入磋商。如達成，這筆交易或將令殼牌掌控世界部分最富產油田，並鞏固這家英荷集團在全球天然氣貿易中的主導地位。

Since the price of crude began its rapid decline last June, expectations have been high that the oil sector could see a repetition of the mergers and acquisitions fever that reconfigured the industry in the late 1990s — another period of low oil prices.

自去年6月原油價格開始暴跌以來，人們一直預期石油產業或將重演上世紀90年代末的併購熱潮。當時處於另一個油價低迷時期，狂熱的併購曾改變了整個石油產業的格局。

That created the current crop of big oil companies such as BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil. Shell’s bid is worth about £46bn, according to people familiar with the matter, which represents a 50 per cent premium to BG’s market value. BG shares closed up 6.3 per cent at 910.4p on Tuesday, valuing the company at £30.7bn, before news of the talks broke.

那次併購潮催生了目前這批大型石油公司，包括英國石油(BP)、雪佛龍(Chevron)以及埃克森美孚(ExxonMobil)。知情人士表示，殼牌的收購價碼是大約460億英鎊左右，比英國天然氣集團的市值高50%。在有關這一磋商的新聞傳出之前，英國石油集團的股票週二收漲6.3%，達到每股910.4便士，令該公司市值達到307億英鎊。