ADNOC’s investment arm XRG, in consortium with Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company (ADQ) and investment firm Carlyle, has submitted a final non-binding indicative proposal to acquire 100% of Australian independent E&P player Santos, the companies announced on Monday.
The proposal was submitted on June 13, 2025, at a price of USD 5.76 per share of Santos, representing a 28% premium to Santos’s ASX closing price on Friday. In March 2025, the consortium made two non-binding proposals at USD 5.04 and USD 5.42 that were not made public at the time.
The board of Santos has determined to begin negotiating terms for the consortium to access confidential company information and conduct due diligence. The proposal remains subject to a positive due diligence outcome, agreement on a binding scheme implementation agreement (SIA) and regulatory approvals.
Subject to the successful execution of the SIA and a favourable independent expert opinion, the Santos board intends to unanimously recommend the transaction to shareholders, provided a superior proposal does not emerge.
Should the deal go through, the consortium will invest towards furthering Santos’s gas and LNG businesses, which are the principal draws behind the deal. In recent months, XRG has completed investments in gas assets in Mozambique, Turkmenistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan and the USA.
Santos’s portfolio includes gas assets in Western Australia, as well as Gladstone LNG on Australia’s east coast and Darwin LNG in the north. The company also owns stakes in PNG LNG and the Papua LNG project, both in Papua New Guinea.
Source: theenergyyear.com