Two Australian liquefied gas giants are considering a merger. It would be a global giant
Australian oil and gas producers Woodside Energy and Santos confirmed on Thursday they are in talks about a potential merger that would create a giant energy group with a market capitalization of around $52.6 billion (AUS$80 billion) .
Woodside is Australia's largest independent oil and gas company and is a listed company headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. Born in Victoria in the 1950s, it has several large-scale businesses including in the LNG production sector. Santos Ltd. which has nothing to do with football but stands for South Australia Northern Territory Oil Search, instead owns gas and oil-related assets in central Australia, from north to south, and is based in Adelaide.
“In response to recent media speculation, Woodside confirms that it is in discussions regarding a potential merger with Santos Ltd,” Woodside said in a brief statement on Thursday .
“Discussions remain confidential and incomplete and there is no certainty that the discussions will lead to a transaction,” the company added.
“As a global energy company, Woodside continually evaluates a variety of opportunities to create and deliver shareholder value.” Santos, for his part, confirmed “that he has entered into preliminary discussions with Woodside regarding a potential merger.”
Santos also stressed that consideration of a possible merger is at an early stage and there is no agreement between the parties.
“There is no certainty that these discussions will lead to a transaction.”
If the talks lead to a merger, it would create a giant oil and gas producer and a major LNG exporter from Australia, one of the top three LNG exporters in the world along with the United States and Qatar.
A spokesperson for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission told Reuters that the creation of a large LNG exporting company in Australia could warrant closer scrutiny due to the potential impact on competition. This company would certainly have considerable global weight in the sector
An eventual deal would be one of the largest corporate mergers in Australia in years and would follow a series of energy mega-deals in the United States in recent weeks.
Santos LNG Darwin, Northern territories
In October, ExxonMobil announced a deal to buy Pioneer Natural Resources in an all-stock transaction valued at $59.5 billion. The implied total value of the deal, including net debt, is approximately $64.5 billion.
Less than two weeks later, the other U.S. supermajority, Chevron, said it would buy Hess Corporation in an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion, with a total enterprise value, including debt, of $60 billion.
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The article Two Australian liquefied gas giants are considering a merger. It would be a global giant comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/due-colossi-australinai-del-gas-liquefatto-valutano-una-fusione-sarebbe-un-colosso-a-livello-mondiale/ on Fri, 08 Dec 2023 10:00:09 +0000.