Santos shares jump on $36 billion takeover bid

ABC NEWS (Australia)

As markets are gripped by the latest news from the Middle East, the government of Abu Dhabi has launched a $36 billion takeover of Australia's second-largest gas producer, Santos.

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00:00The government-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and private equity outfit Carlyle

00:07Group are offering $8.89 per share cash, or $36 billion for Santos. The market response

00:13was quite restrained though, leaving the Santos share price well below $8 because it's far

00:19from certain that the government will approve it, since Santos controls critical energy

00:23infrastructure supplying major Australian cities and the bidder is a foreign government.

00:28This is the consortium's third go at buying Santos, but the first two at $8 and $8.60

00:34in late March were kept quiet. Here's a chart of its share price with those nibbles marked

00:39in. Santos shares fell on April 2 with everything else after Trump's big tariff announcement,

00:45but you wonder how those who sold at less than $6 are feeling today, when at the time there

00:50were offers above $8 that they didn't know about. After a big jump on Friday, the oil price

00:55settled not far above $70 a barrel today. And it's fair to say that the oil market is alert,

01:01but not all that alarmed. But that could change in a hurry, of course, if either Israel or Iran

01:06started bombing oil facilities or blocking transport routes. The share market is also not panicking

01:12and closed close to flat, with gains by energy stocks offset by falls among the banks. There

01:18was a second takeover offer today. Tourism Holdings, a New Zealand based recreational vehicle business,

01:23jumped more than 50% after a private equity fund lobbed in a bid. American shares fell more than 1%

01:30on Friday in the immediate aftermath of Israel's attack on Iran. And the Aussie dollar is flat at

01:36just under 65 US cents. And that's finance.

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