Michael McLaren has weighed in on the news Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Adnoc has agreed to terms over a takeover bid of Santos to the tune of $30 billion.

He argues that while other divestments of Australian-owned assets like the Darwin Port drew controversy due to Chinese involvement, it’s never a good idea to divest strategic assets to foreign governments or businesses

“I do concede that a cheque from Abu Dhabi has better odds of succeeding, as slim as those odds might be,” he said.

The takeover has yet to be approved.

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