This Article is From Oct 22, 2015

Australia's Santos Rejects $5.1 Billion Takeover Bid

Australia's Santos Rejects $5.1 Billion Takeover Bid

Australian oil and gas producer Santos today rejected a Aus$7.1 billion.

sydney: Australian oil and gas producer Santos today rejected a Aus$7.1 billion (US$5.1 million) takeover proposal from merchant bank and investment syndicate Scepter Partners, which manages money for Asian and Gulf-based royals.

Santos, which has stakes in oil and gas production in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Vietnam, has been hit hard by a plunge in crude prices and announced a strategic review to pay down debt in August, including possibly selling some assets.

But it said it was not interested in the approach from Scepter, which bid Aus$6.88 cash for each Santos share, a 26 percent premium on Wednesday's closing price.

The approach sent Santos shares soaring more than 17 percent to Aus$6.40 when the market opened Thursday.

"The proposal is considered to be opportunistic in nature and does not reflect the fair underlying asset value of the company," Santos said in a statement, revealing the indicative and highly conditional proposal was received Tuesday.

"The proposal was also subject to numerous conditions, some of which would be adverse to Santos' continued evaluation of other alternatives in its current strategic review process."

Scepter is a direct investment business whose stakeholders include a standing syndicate of ruling families, ultra-high-net-worth industrialists and sovereign wealth funds.

Its website says it represents over US$14 billion in discretionary assets and more than US$100 billion in net worth of core stakeholders.
 
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