Santos has agreed to extend the exclusivity period granted to a consortium to enable it to complete due diligence on the purchase.
The consortium, led by XRG P.J.S.C., a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and includes Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company (ADQ) and Carlyle (the XRG Consortium), plans to acquire 100% of the issued shares of Santos for US$5.76 (A$8.89) per share in cash.
Taking into account net debt, the deal gives Santos an enterprise value of A$36.4 billion, which would make it the largest all-cash corporate buyout in Australian history, according to FactSet data.
The XRG Consortium has now substantially completed its due diligence and not discovered anything to date that would cause it to withdraw its proposal, but requested a two-week extension.
Santos has consented to the extension until August 22 to enable the XRG Consortium to finalise due diligence and progress a scheme implementation agreement.
The exclusivity restrictions summarised in Santos’ announcement on June 27 will continue to apply during the period of the extension (noting that a fiduciary exception to those restrictions enabling Santos to deal with potentially superior proposals from competing acquirers has applied since July 25 and will continue to apply during the period of the extension).