Australian companies, BHP and Woodside, announced Wednesday that they completed their all-stock merger. The merger’s effective date, according to BHP, is July 1.
BHP’s Chief Executive Officer, Mike Henry said, “The merger of our petroleum assets with Woodside creates a global energy company with the scale and opportunity to help supply the energy needed for global growth and development in a rapidly decarbonising world.”
He said BHP’s shareholders will now have exposure to assets in two organisations, each with a very clear focus, strategy and value proposition.
New top 10 global oil producer to form in June when BHP, Woodside close merger | OilNOW
BHP received 914,768,948 Woodside shares as consideration for the sale of BHP Petroleum, and distributed those shares to eligible BHP shareholders.
“The closing price of Woodside shares on ASX on 31 May 2022 was A$29.76,” BHP said.
The new global energy company is called Woodside Energy Group Ltd. Woodside announced the name change just prior to the merge.
Woodside said that all references to Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (its previous name) have been replaced with references to the new name. Its ticker code on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) will change from WPL to WDS with effect from May 25, 2022. Woodside will list its shares in the form of American Depositary Shares (ADSs), it said, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker “WDS”.