Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A), Europe’s largest oil company, is acquiring rival BG Group for $70.2 billion in the oil industry’s largest acquisition in a decade.
Shell, which said the deal will boost its proven reserves by 25%, is paying a 52% premium to BG’s 90-day trading in what amounts to the third-biggest oil and gas deal ever by enterprise value, report Dmitry Zhdannikov and Karolin Schaps for Reuters.
Even with the deal’s heft and the subsequent 27.3% surge by shares of BG in London trading, U.S.-listed equity-based energy ETFs with exposure to U.K.-based BG have barely nudged today.
For example, the $1.1 billion iShares Global Energy ETF (NYSEArca: IXC) is trading slightly lower today, though volume in the fund is already more than 62% above the trailing three-month average. Figuring out the reasons for IXC’s lethargy, even on the heels of one of the largest energy deals in years, is easy. [How Pros use Global Sector ETFs]
The ETF, which debuted in November 2001, allocates nearly 8% of its combined weight to two Shell securities and that stock is down today. Shell’s class A shares listed in New York are off nearly 4% while Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-B) is lower by 6.7%. Amid speculation that it will be compelled to follow with its own mega-deal, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), the largest U.S. oil company, is off 1.4% today. That stock is 14.1% of IXC’s weight.
The SPDR S&P International Energy Sector ETF (NYSEArca: IPW) is trading modestly higher today, outperforming the rival IXC in the process. Again, the reasons are clear. While IPW allocates almost 18% of its combined weight to the two aforementioned Shell securities, the ETF’s weight to BG is also substantially higher than IXC’s.