- Shell's (NYSE:RDS.A) sale of a 33% stake in Japanese refining partner Showa Shell to domestic rival Idemitsu Kosan (OTC:IDKOF) in a $1.6B deal could be held up because of a wider plan for a total merger of the Japanese companies, analysts warn.
- Any delay in the smaller deal would do no good for Shell's plans to sell $30B of assets by 2018 as it looks to slash its $75B of debt, a large chunk of which it the company took on after it bought British peer BG Group for $50B in January.
- By June, Shell had sold just $1.5B in assets.