Whilst we don’t know the FX implications of this sale (need to know by who and to pay in what) at this stage, this deal will be remembered for the Australian Treasurer (Peter Costello) famously at the time stepping in and vetoing the full takeover of Woodside by Shell saying in was not in the countries best interests. Shell nonetheless did OK out of the deal. Their purchase price was just over AUD$10 a share and Woodside now trade around $42 a share. The other windfall of course would be the FX gains from buying AUD and selling GBP.