Santos shares fell more than 2% yesterday after a big foreign shareholder divested part of its holding in a $A700 million plus share sale.
Chinese group, ENN was reportedly trying to sell the holding on Friday night and on Monday Santos told the ASX that it had happened.
Santos shares closed at $7.55, down 2.7% on the day.
“Santos has been advised by ENN Group (ENN) that it has sold approximately 107.1 million shares representing a 5.14 per cent interest in Santos at $7.33 per share.
“The sale process was oversubscribed and received strong support from existing and new institutional shareholders.”
ENN remains Santos’ largest individual shareholder with a 9.97% stake.
As a result of the sale, Santos said the 2017 strategic relationship agreement with ENN regarding board representation and other matters is no longer effective.
“Accordingly, the ENN-nominated director Mr Eugene Shi will resign from the Santos Board following completion of the sale,” Santos’s statement to the ASX ended.
ENN bought into Santos in 2016 buying a $750 million stake from another Chinese group, Hony Capital.
Santos said in March 2016 that it had approved the transfer of Hony’s 11.7% stake to ENN Group’s ENN Ecological Holdings.
Hony acquired most of its shares in November 2015 when Santos raised $A3 billion in a share issue to help it slash debt in the midst of the 2014 oil slump.
ENN effectively paid $A4.84 a share, based on the exchange rate at the time of just over 74 US Cents.
