28/01/2016 World Business Report

Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News.

Now for the latest financial news and World Business Report.

Shell shocked - shareholders will seal a 49 billion

But does it still make any financial sense?

Has the market turmoil put plans for higher US interest rates

I'm Sally Bundock, also in the programme -

powering ahead - Facebook notched another record profit with sales

We start with a mega merger in the oil industry - and

On Wednesday the shareholders of Royal Dutch Shell gave the

go-ahead for the takeover of oil and gas exploration company BG Group.

Later today it's the turn of the BG Group shareholders, they are

At 49-billion dollars, the deal would be the biggest seen

But some Shell shareholders have questioned the logic

Oil had already fallen to 55-dollars a barrel

when it was first announced in April - the plunge has continued of course

One major investor said crude would need to be at 60 dollars

If it goes ahead - the companies would merge on the 15th of February.

Iain Reid is the Senior Oil Gas equity analyst

at Macquarie, he joins us from their London trading floor.

We mention the key shareholders raising red flags about this deal

saying that it has to be around $60 a barrel for this to make any sense.

What is your thought? You do need recovery in the price for this

merger to make money for Shell. If it does not recover, there are a lot

of other investments that will not make sense either. They've taken a

long-term decision in the best interests of the Shell shareholders

and eventually it will make sense. You need a recovery in the oil price

and we're thinking it is coming towards the end of this year. It'll

seem to be a good deal retrospectively. Do think that made

the right decision then? -- do you. They are not stupid. They have

recovered to all priced above 100 when it went down previously. I'm

not saying it is going to those levels. $60 is not ridiculous at

all. In the meantime, they also said yesterday that they will go ahead

with the deal, what short-term changes for this company had to put

in place to keep their head above water financially? Shell has already

said they will dispose of a lot of assets, not only in BG Group assets

but also their own. They will try to make Shell are much lower company

that can survive and prosper at lower prices than it has in the past

and to do that they have to get rid of some of the higher costs in the

portfolio. We will see a swift move by Shell to try and dispose of those

kinds of assets and slim the company down a little bit. Thank you for

your time very early in the morning. Thank you. We will update you hear

more on that story later. We are also

in Washington DC where the world's most powerful central bank has been

holding its monthly meeting. But the US Federal Reserve has done

little to calm nerves The Fed expressed its concern

about the economic outlook and market turmoil - but left investors

guessing about how it will react. As expected the Fed left interest

rates unchanged - after raising them last month

for the first time in a decade. Let's take a look at the details In

language that echoed the European Central Bank last week -

the Fed said it's "closely monitoring" global economic

and financial developments. At the end of last year investors

were betting that another interest rate rise in March was more likely

than not - ie more than 50/50. Those bets have now all

but collapsed to about one in five. But the Fed also repeated its

promise that rate increases would be 'gradual' - suggesting its plans

are not out of the window yet. From New York here's

Michelle Fleury. America's Central bank is keeping

its options open even as growth in the world 's biggest economy had

slowed. Six-week after raising the rates it left them are unchanged on

Wednesday. They said they wanted more time to study the impact of

increased weakness in the global economy. In a statement published

after a two-day policy meeting, they said it is closely monitoring global

economies and markets. They now expect three quarters rate increases

this year. We are still thinking they will increase rates three times

this year. Our baseline forecast is that it will go again until June and

they will need some time to assess the economic conditions and need

some time for that markets to stabilise and have a little bit more

clarity as to what is happening in the global markets as well. Our

baseline view is that we have steady growth, continued expansion of the

legal market, some signs of inflationary pressures building

following by two more hikes at the end of the year. But no one can be

sure. Despite the gloomy outlook, they did not commit to slowing their

rate increases. That would explain why it fell on the news. They're

hoping for a clear signal that they would move more slowly this year

were left disappointed. Also in business today, Facebook

has been winning even more friends - Shares in

the social media giant jumped almost 12% in after-hours trading after it

said quarterly profits doubled. Revenue was up strongly, as were the

number As Nada Tawfik

in New York explains - Facebook's advertising strategy is getting

the big thumbs up with investors. They were very quick to get in on

mobile ads and video ad. That has really been helping Facebook. They

have been having a strong growing user base but some investors are

concerned that that will slow down. But that is why they have had

advertising spending with them taking on that TV revenue and having

advertisers put it into mobile video. They have also made some

smart investments into some of their other apps. These are the key moves

that Facebook has made in the last few years that has left shareholders

optimistic. They are planning to keep investing in different products

and for now, at least, they can keep that momentum up.

Let's go to Asia now where Samsung has been adding to fears

of technology investors about the smartphone market.

It has been warning of weaker sales, just a day

after arch rival Apple forecast its first drop in sales in 13 years.

Rico Hizon is following the story for us in Singapore.

Nice to see you. Samsun is struggling still? It is being

squeezed into the smart phone market and 2016 is not looking bright for

the smart phone manufacturers. After years of record profits which we

have been reporting for a while, it seems to be slowing down. Profits

are falling by about 40% to two points 7 billion US dollars. This

was in the three months leading from September. That was significantly

below expectations. Getting some guidance as to what is looking like

going forward, they cannot you to softer sales because of gadgets of

smart phones, a trend that is also herding their rival Apple --

hurting. They are basically undercutting sales of trunks rating

from televisions to personal computers. Not such a good day for

eBay either. Their shares fell sharply after they forecast lower

earnings than expected. They are struggling from the competition from

rival retailers, Amazon. Steep falls too

for Boeing shares after the US aircraft giant braced its investors

for a rough ride in 2016. Boeing says it will be delivering

fewer planes and making less profit than expected as it re-jigs its

production lines for new models. Analysts had expected it to maintain

production levels rather than risk Boeing still says it sees

a strong market for new aircraft despite slowing

global growth and low oil prices. The markets are all high in the

Asian markets. The fact that the rate rises are further away our

music to their ears. You can see the price of oil going down as well.

Apple 's shares up pulling down the NASDAQ quite significantly. I will

see you soon. A report looking at care for elderly

people in England and Wales says