Royal Dutch Shell offloads Canadian business for $3.3bn as oil giant nears divestment target
Royal Dutch Shell is selling its entire interest in Canadian Natural for around $3.3bn (£2.4bn) as the oil giant looks to reduce net debt.
The firm announced this morning it had entered into an underwriting agreement with Goldmach Sachs, RBC Capital Markets, Scotiabank and TD Securities to offload just over 97.5m shares in the firm.
Proceeds from the sale will contribute to reducing net debt, Shell said. The sale is expected to complete on May 9, 2018.
The deal, which is part of Shell’s broader divestment plan, follows a similar move last year in which it give up direct ownership of interests in Canadian oil sands assets in a transaction worth $7.25bn.
Shell is pursuing a plan to sell off non-core assets to simplify the company, and this sale has taken it another step closer to hitting its divestment target of $30bn.
The divestment programme began in 2016 after Shell’s £47bn acquisition of gas producer BG Group and in the midst of a low oil price environment.
Once complete, Shell has said it will aim to continue divestments at an average rate of more than $5bn a year until at least 2020.