by Angela Macdonald-Smith: Nov 12 2015
In a country touting itself as “open for business”, the national competition regulator looms as a major hurdle in what could be the world’s biggest energy merger this decade, Royal Dutch Shell’s $US70 billion ($99 billion) swallowing of BG Group.
Despite Shell’s global chief Ben van Beurden claiming “massive support” from federal and state politicians for the merger, Australian competition tsar Rod Sims will first have a say, with the twice-deferred ruling from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission due on November 19.