Daily Mail

THE DAILY BRIEFING

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SHELL OUT

Shell is selling another £843.5m of assets in the latest attempt to trim its global portfolio by £25bn.

The oil and gas giant said it would sell 206,000 acres of land in western canada to calgary-based rival Tourmaline Oil corp.

it is part of a global bid to reduce its debt pile after buying BG Group earlier this year in a £35bn deal. Shares fell 0.3pc, or 6p, to 2168.5p.

BID BLOCK

Activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors is to block a bid for one of its investment­s.

Engineerin­g group GE Germany Holdings is understood to have made a tender for outstandin­g shares in SlM Solutions Group.

But Elliott, which has a 20pc stake in SlM, said it intends to reject the offer for the 3D metal-printing company, adding that it would not be in the best interests of SlM shareholde­rs.

PETROFAC CHIEF

Petrofac has appointed a new finance chief after the exit of Tim Weller.

Alistair cochran has joined the oil and gas giant as chief financial officer and executive director after leaving his post at BG Group, where he was responsibl­e for mergers and acquisitio­ns. BG Group was bought by rival Shell in february last year for £35bn.

PRICE RULING

Plans to set a minimum price for alcohol in Scotland have been backed in court.

The Edinburgh court of Session ruled against a challenge by the Scotch whisky industry, which claimed a minimum price rule breached EU law. A price of 50p per unit of alcohol will be set under the plans, taking a bottle of spirits to at least £14.

MICROSOFT RECORD

Shares in Microsoft reached a record high yesterday, climbing above the peak set during the dotcom boom 17 years ago. The stock traded at $60.45 just after the market opened in the wake of a positive earnings report, surging 5.6pc and eclipsing its previous high of $59.97.

JOB CUTS

Train and plane maker Bombardier is axing 7,500 jobs worldwide. Two-thirds will be in its rail division and the rest in aerospace.

About 2,000 of the cuts will be in the firm’s home country of canada.

The effect on UK jobs is unclear.

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