Harbour back?, page-13

Exciting times.....

Harbour Energy has made a $6.50 a share all-cash bid for local oil & gas company Santos, as flagged by Street Talk on Sunday night.

It is understood Harbour Energy re-approached Santos about 10 days ago with an indicative offer which led to the $6.50 a share bid .

The bid is conditional on due diligence and funding.

It is understood Santos has granted Harbour Energy access to a data room and will announce the offer on Tuesday morning.


The bid vales Santos' equity at $13.5 billion, which is about a 30 per cent premium to where the shares were trading last week.



It is understood Harbour Energy has told Santos its bid is fully debt funded, pending due diligence.

Santos is advised by Deutsche Bank and Rothschild Australia.

Harbour Energy has been taking its counsel from JPMorgan, Highbury Partnership and Gilbert + Tobin, and has also drafted in Morgan Stanley. It is owned by resources private equity investor EIG Global Partners, which is best known locally for its stake in ASX-listed Senex Energy.

Santos is about 15 per cent owned by two Chinese shareholders, gas distributor ENN Group and private equity firm Hony Capital, who under a strategic partnership with Santos have the option to counter any takeover offer that is higher than their own entry price onto the share register.


The new approach comes as Harbour Energy boss and former Shell executive Linda Cook has been in Australia meeting stakeholders.

It also comes about six months after Harbour Energy last approached Santos, with an indicative offer at $4.55 a share. Santos rebuffed the proposal, saying it undervalued the company and the bidder's funding was uncertain.