JPMorgan believed to have advised Harbour Energy on $9.5bn bid for Santos

Investment bank JPMorgan is believed to have acted as the adviser for Harbour Energy on its $9.48 billion bid for Santos.

The oil and gas company confirmed to the market today that it rebuffed a recent offer made by Harbour — which was formed by EIG Global Energy Partners.

But Santos said it was not currently in takeover talks with the energy investment firm.

Defence advisers for Santos are Deutsche and J.B North & Co, while Lazard is also thought to remain around the hoop.

Santos said a non-binding bid of $4.55 per share was made by Harbour to buy controlling or near controlling stakes in energy assets globally on August 14.

The board rejected the approach on the basis that the indicative price was inadequate and the sources of funds were uncertain.

Shares in Santos (STO) rallied on the speculation.

They closed at $4.38 on Wednesday and were up more than 12 per cent in early afternoon trade at about $4.93.

Harbour Energy is managed by EIG Global Energy Partners, which has $US24.3bn of invested capital in 36 countries across a portfolio of 321 companies.

Santos is a listed natural gas company established in 1954 with five core long-life natural gas assets, including the Cooper Basin, GLNG, Papua New Guinea, Northern Australia and Western Australia Gas.

The company’s shares have recovered from lows of around $2.63 early last year, which was around the time that it was recapitalised to drive down its debt levels at a time that the oil price was trading at low levels.

Stocks have lifted across the resources sector with commodity prices increasing, including oil.

China’s Hony Capital took a stake in Santos as part of a $2.5bn equity raising in 2015 but sold its then 11.7 per cent holding to ENN.

Currently, Hony and ENN collectively own 15 per cent of Santos.