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Los Angeles Times has learnt that Saudi Aramco and Colorado Oil & Gas Association are separately considering submitting bids to acquire stakes in the Australian gas company Santos, according to people familiar with the talks, at a time when energy giants in the Middle East seek to increase their investments. In the gas outside.
Santos shares rose by as much as 6.5% in trading today, Thursday, reaching the highest level in more than a year, before closing trading with a 4.2% rise on the Sydney Stock Exchange, bringing the company’s value to 26 billion Australian dollars (17.4 billion US dollars). The company’s declining share price has led to the failure of takeover attempts several times in recent years, and sparked calls for it to divest its business.
Great interest in investing in gas
Last year, Aramco agreed to buy a stake in MidOcean Energy, an arm of the investment firm EIG Global Energy Partners, for $500 million, its first investment. In liquefied natural gas.
The sources said that deliberations are continuing, and the two companies have not decided whether they will submit offers to conclude the deal. Some people said Aramco may choose to work with a partner if the deal goes ahead. Representatives of Aramco, Colorado Oil & Gas Association and Santos declined to comment.
In 2018, Santos rejected multiple offers from US-based Harbor Energy Ltd, while takeover talks by Woodside Energy Group Ltd fell through this year. Some investors have urged the company to separate its sought-after liquefied natural gas assets from its Alaskan oil operations and domestic gas businesses in Australia to take advantage of higher valuations.
“Santos has been marketing itself for a while,” says Sol Cavonic, an energy analyst at Sydney-based MST Markey. “But once they look beneath the surface at Santos, they see a lot of problems with the old Australian land assets and they turn away,” he added.
Chief Executive Kevin Gallagher, who turned Santos into Australia’s second-largest oil and gas producer, is under pressure to boost the performance of stocks that have lagged behind peers and to increase shareholder returns. An activist investor criticized the company last year for allocating too much capital to growth.
Cavonic said investors are frustrated and there is no plan to succeed the CEO, whose term is nearing the end. This can create a period of additional vulnerability for the high-hoped target. However, he said the company’s Australian portfolio might be better suited to European oil majors or Mid Ocean Energy.
“It would be a pleasant surprise if there is a convergence (to discuss the deal),” said Matthew Haupt, portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, which owns shares in Santos. He added, “Santos is an attractive target for other parties, so it is present, but I am not sure that players in the Middle East are interested.”
| NAMEIndicator | VALUERead the indicator | NET CHANGEthe change | CHANGE %Percentage of change | 1 MONTHMonth | 1 YEARyear | TIME(GMT)the time | 2 DAYtow days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG1:COMNatural gas (Nymex) | 2.32 | -0.10 | -4.09% | -15.89% | -12.72% | 2024-07-05 |  |
| HO1:COMHeating gas (Nymex) | 260.24 | -3.19 | -1.21% | +13.09% | +4.38% | 2024-07-05 | |
| MO1:COMCarbon emissions | 70.36 | +0.29 | +0.41% | -2.03% | -18.00% | 2024-07-05 | |
| BAP1:COMPropane | 0.85 | 0.00 | -0.04% | +24.82% | +55.68% | 2024-07-05 | |
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