By Ben Martin, and Ben Marlow, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: 3 JAN 2016
One of the world’s largest investors has more than halved its stake in BG Group, sparking fresh speculation that some of the oil explorer’s top shareholders are sceptical about the prospects for its proposed tie-up with rival Royal Dutch Shell.
Capital Group, which is also one of the biggest investors in Shell, offloaded £417m of BG shares over the course of December, slashing its shareholding in the FTSE 100 giant from 2.2pc to 0.9pc, stock exchange filings show.
The American fund management firm continued to reduce its stake even after Shell published the prospectus for the blockbuster BG takeover on December 22, in which it sought to convince shareholders of the merits of the deal by outlining additional capital spending cuts.