Good evening,

Santos saved the day!

Just as Street Talk was resigning itself to an M&A-less Monday, Santos surprised us by getting a binding bid worth $US1.4 billion ($2.1 billion) for its Papua New Guinea LNG assets.

Santos’ suitor was PNG’s national oil and gas company Kumul Petroleum, which bought 5 per cent of PNG LNG off the ASX-listed bigwig.

After the deal settles, Kumul would own 22 per cent of PNG LNG, while Santos would still be the largest shareholder at 37.5 per cent.

It’s a transaction that was well flagged – PNG’s Prime Minister James Marape was involved in discussions from when Santos acquired Oil Search last year, and analysts have been pegging numbers on the mooted deal since.

But it was still exciting. With the ground thick with dead deals (think, Ramsay and Link) or silent ones (think, Infomedia or Nearmap) – anything with a greater than average completion rate is enough to make a banker’s day.

Elsewhere, RetireAustralia bidders were in action mode, Regal cut a cheque for fintech Shaype, and Melbourne property developer Pelligra Group was lurking around in a new real estate manager’s fundraising deck.

Happy reading,
Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk editors