Santos shares soar amid takeover bid

SANTOS shares reached two year highs mid-november after announcing it had rejected a $9.3 billion offer from US private equity group Harbour Energy to acquire all shares in the company.

According to Santos, on 14 August the company received a confidential, non-binding and indicative proposal from Harbour Energy to acquire all shares by scheme of arrangement at a price of $4.55 per share, which it deemed “inadequate” and the source of funds “uncertain”.

On 16 November, Santos stock jumped 57c (13 per cent) to $4.95; the highest shares had reached since the company’s $2.5 billion capital raising in November 2015 after it rejected a conditional $6.88 per share bid from Brunei and Uae-backed Scepter Partners.

Various media reports speculated Harbour Energy was preparing to make another cash proposal of $5.30 a share in coming weeks.

However, Santos refuted the claims stating “it is not currently engaged in discussions with, and has not received a current proposal from, Harbour Energy regarding a change of control transaction for Santos.”