The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[Timothy Smith]

$RDS.A - The $53B mega deal - creating the world's biggest trader of liquefied natural gas - came into force today after shareholders waved through the tie-up at the end of January despite slumping oil prices.

"We will now be able to shape a simpler, leaner, more competitive company, focusing on our core expertise in deep water and LNG," CEO Ben Van Beurden declared.

Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) has said it will cut more than 10K jobs from the combined group and sell $30B of assets over the next three years in order to finance the deal, buy back shares and support dividends.