Takeover Murmurings

Interesting article in the Fin Review. Here's some xtracts from the story.

Price gap may trigger wave of oil and gas M&A

Oil Search, Cooper Energy, Senex Energy and Carnarvon Petroleum could all become targets of a takeover as a gulf opens up between robust oil and gas prices and the producers’ sickly share prices, JPMorgan analyst Mark Busuttil says.


JPMorgan suggests that Santos may look to take over Oil Search, which has just lost Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund as its anchor investor, potentially paving the way for corporate interest. Woodside made an approach to Oil Search in 2015 but Mr Busuttil suggests that foreign majors ExxonMobil and Total, both of which have major stakes in PNG LNG projects, would be more likely suitors.
A takeover of Cooper Energy or Senex Energy by Seven Group-backed Beach Energy is another scenario suggested by Mr Busuttil, who noted that both Cooper and Senex trade at “sizeable” discounts to fair value and have open share registers.
Carnarvon, a 20 per cent owner of Santos’ $2.6 billion Dorado oil project in Western Australia. could attract interest from Santos itself to consolidate interest in the project, he said.