change in sentiment with active buying?, page-7

Agree, I don't think STO wants anyone to takeover ESG. Thus that buyer will either pay a hefty premium to STO for it or have to get lost.

Essentially ESG is STO's turf now. Plus the fact with bad credit markets atm, I don't think anyone can afford ESG at a very big premium to its current valuation or even a premium to greater than a dollar per share.

STO has already had a big cash war chest with the deal with Petronas and now with the capital raising and sale of the Timor stakes. Its war chast is amazingly massive.

The people I think that can probably afford to pay a hefty premium to Santos for ESG would be the Chinese (eg. CNOOC & Sinopec) and probably BG. But BG has its hands full with Gladstone and QLD. So ESG is no go for them.

STO will eventually eat ESG up.