United Arab Emirates investors have made an almost $30 billion cash bid to take over Australian oil and gas producer Santos.

A consortium of investors led by XRG, an arm of the government-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and including Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company and US private equity group Carlyle, issued the non-binding indicative proposal on Friday.

They offered $8.99 cash per share for the acquisition of Santos — a 28 per cent premium on shareholders’ stocks compared to the $6.96 closing price on Friday. 

Under the proposal, the XRG Consortium would maintain the company’s headquarters in Adelaide and operations in Australia.

The bid was the XRG Consortium’s final offer after two previous and confidential bids of $8 and then $8.60 per share in late March.

The proposal requires confirmatory due diligence by the XRG Consortium and a scheme implementation agreement between both parties. 

Santos has decided to allow the XRG Consortium access to confidential company information so they can go ahead with their due diligence and negotiate their terms of the scheme implementation agreement.

If talks are successful, the company’s board said it intends to unanimously recommend the bid to shareholders.

“The Santos Board confirms that, subject to reaching agreement on acceptable terms of a binding scheme implementation agreement, it intends to unanimously recommend that Santos Shareholders vote in favour of the potential transaction,” the board said.

The board’s early endorsement is due to the absence of a higher offer, and if deemed fair and reasonable by an independent expert.

The transaction is, however, clouded in uncertainty as it needs foreign investment approval by several domestic and international regulatory boards and commissions.

“This announcement does not amount to a firm intention to make a binding offer and there can be no certainty that an offer will be made or any transaction will proceed,” XRG said. 

“Santos notes that there is no certainty that the XRG consortium will enter into a binding scheme implementation agreement or that a potential transaction will proceed,” Santos said.