From Bloomberg:
China’s ENN Ecological Holdings Co. is buying an 11.7 percent stake in Santos Ltd. for about $750 million, becoming the largest shareholder in the Australian oil producer and LNG exporter.
ENN, one of the country’s largest distributors of liquefied natural gas, will be taking over a stake in Santos now owned by Chinese-based private equity firm Hony Capital, the ENN Group said in a statement Wednesday. The acquisition will give ENN its first exposure to the upstream part of the energy supply chain, it said.
The deal comes months after Hony purchased a stake in Australia’s third-largest oil and gas producer, which had been trying to cut debt after a global plunge in energy prices. Hony in turn will take a stake in ENN’s A-share listed company through a private placement of $380 million of new shares, according to the statement.
