Saga Tankers launches takeover offer for Standard Drilling

Saga Tankers has launched a mandatory takeover offer for the Oslo-listed Standard Drilling, a former drilling contractor, now an investment firm.

The company owns 59.93 per cent of the total issued and outstanding shares of Standard Drilling, and is now looking to acquire the remaining shares.

Saga Tankers is offering NOK 1.35 per share in cash. The offer price values Standard Drilling at a market capitalization of NOK 353,700,000 ($45.58 million).

The acceptance period starts today and ends on July 15, 2015 at 17.30 CET.

Background

On May 20, 2015, Saga Tankers announced that it had purchased 78,338,000 shares in Standard Drilling at a price of NOK 1.35 per share, corresponding to a total purchase price of NOK 105,756,300. The shares were purchased from Clearwater Capital Partners Fund.

After the announcement of the acquisition, the company purchased an additional 15,674,569 shares in SDSD at a price of NOK 1.35 per share. The additional shares were bought for a total purchase price of NOK 21,160,668.15.

These acquisitions then triggered the mandatory takeover offer for the rest of the shares, announced today.

Standard Drilling

Standard Drilling was established for the purpose of building a premium oilfield services company with superior assets, systems and people. Having sold all initial jack-up rig building contracts, the strategy of SDSD has changed, from building up to become an operator of rigs, to being an investment company within the oil and gas service sector.

Offshore Energy Today Staff