Royal Dutch Shell plans to cut about 2,800 jobs after its takeover of BG Group is completed early next year.
Shell said the cuts, quantified for the first time since the $60bn (£40bn) deal was announced in April, would affect about 3% of the combined company’s permanent workforce. It did not reveal which countries or businesses would be affected.
The group said: “Shell proposes that office consolidation will be undertaken where practical in certain locations around the world. With regards to office footprint rationalisation in the UK, Shell will, following deal completion, undertake a comprehensive review during the course of 2016.”
The post-takeover job losses will come on top of 7,500 announced by Shell for its own business as it seeks to cut costs after a slump in oil prices.
The Anglo-Dutch company announced the cuts after China’s competition authority consented to the BG takeover, after it completed the required regulatory approvals. Shell approval from Brazil, the EU and Australia.
Some Shell shareholders have become increasingly doubtful about the BG deal, which was agreed on the assumption oil prices would recover to $90 a barrel by 2020. The price of oil has slumped from $115 a barrel in summer 2014 to less than $40, with some analysts predicting it could fall further.
Shell said it aimed to press on with the deal by seeking approval from both sets of shareholders, but Standard Life, one of the biggest investors in the UK stock market, said the deal could not work with oil prices so low.
David Cumming, head of equities at Standard Life Investments, said: “The deal doesn’t make financial sense at the current oil price. You have to be pretty bullish on the oil price to make this deal work.”
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