It’s Tuesday the 17th of June 2025 and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has made a nearly $30 billion cash takeover bid for Santos, one of Australia's biggest oil and gas producers. The Santos board has endorsed the deal. From a shareholder’s point of view, Santos hasn’t traded at the bid price of $8.89 a share in more than a decade, and it’s about a 30pc premium to where it was last week. It’s a good deal. It might be different in Canberra, where the new Albanese government will be tested, particularly with energy security a hot political issue.
PM AnthonyAlbanese has agreed to negotiate a defence pact between Australia and the European Union and supports Canada joining the AUKUS arrangement. Mr Albanese met with Canada’s leader MarkCarney on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Calgary and said Australia needs to broaden its security relationships in a volatile world.
ASIC has launched an inquiry into ASX Limited – the company – over its risk management, culture and corporate governance standards. The inquiry will determine if the ASX is fit to operate financial markets, so the stakes are high.
The S&P/ASX200 closed up just a touch yesterday, finishing at 8548 points having jumped on opening in part thanks to the Santos deal. It was another great day for the uranium stocks, while the gold companies were underperformers.
President Donald Trump said that he hopes Israel and Iran can broker a peace deal but sometimes countries have to fight it out first. He also alluded to the idea of the US entering the conflict. His comments come as attacks between the two continue, fuelling concerns among world leaders, gathering in Canada for the G7 Summit, that the two countries could fall into all-out war.
MI6 will be led by a woman for the first time in the UK foreign intelligence service's 116-year history. Blaise Metreweli, who joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1999, will become the 18th chief of the organisation later this year. She is currently responsible for technology and innovation at the service. If you transfer this to James Bond land, Ms Metreweli is currently Q.
Fear-o-meter
The bid for Santos wasn’t the only deal announced yesterday. Campervan group THL received a bid from private equity while Freedom Furniture was sold to another PE group.
There’s a bunch of other deals in different stages of completion. Shipbuilder Austal is in the sights of overseas buyers while Domain Holdings has almost completed its sale to a US group. There’s speculation around a bunch of smaller gold companies like Ora Banda Mining, while Virgin Australia is about to hit the ASX.
The flood of deals suggests boards of listed companies have regained confidence – confidence that’s been somewhat absent since the COVID pandemic.
The ASX is fully priced at the moment. That might suggest takeovers aren’t a great idea, but when corporate activity picks up, it seems to gather a head of steam. Expect more M&A for the rest of this year.
Who's talking today?
On the rise of 'Agentic AI', and the pressure on Australian businesses to keep up with the rest of the world:
"It doesn't take too long to look around the world to see countries stating clearly that they want to be leaders in the use of artificial intelligence: many in our region and many in Europe and of course the US. It's very obvious that many have identified this wave as the one that will help them to establish competitive advantage and obviously to help them as they continue to shift their economies. So I think there's a very clear signal to us as a nation to take the steps that are necessary.
The thing that we really need to do is to have the conversations...but also to skill ourselves to understand how to use this technology. And I don't mean, one or two people inside the organisation or the tech team. Every leader and every employee in any industry needs to think deeply about where will AI impact their job or might it impact their job so that they can form their own point of view, which then I think raises the quality of the discussion that we then have."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gets a pay rise from July 1, after the Remuneration Tribunal boosted federal politician salaries by 2.4%. The Sydney Morning Herald has done some terrific work outlining where the PM's new salary compares to other world leaders. Here are the top seven, converted to AUD.
We’re working with Fonto, a research agency, to learn more about our community. We’re running a short survey to hear from you – how you’re feeling, what you love, what we could improve on, and more. It only takes a few minutes, and by taking part before 30 June, you’ll be in the running to win a $3,000 Luxury Escapes voucher. Click here to take part.
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