The Week in Review

The money, apparently, is in oil as two of the industry’s biggest gurus, John Fredriksen and George Economou, both make aggressive plays into the rig space. Mr. Fredriksen, of course, has long been making investments into various facets of the offshore industry and has either spawned or acquired a bevy of offshore companies to that end. It was hardly earth shattering this week when Seadrill announced that it had acquired 200,000 shares and entered into forwards to acquire 16,300,000 shares in US-listed Pride International, an offshore company with a market capitalization of $7.2 billion. The shares amount to a 9.9% stake, worth around $708 million. The move prompted Pride International to take action to lower the threshold level of ownership to trigger its stockholder rights plan from 15% to 10%. Seadrill has also asked Pride for a meeting to discuss “potential strategic benefits for both parties of a transaction between the two companies.” A merger could be on the cards – or it could not be. Mr. Fredriksen has shown himself as skillful an investor as an acquirer, using each strategy as it suits him.

This is only an excerpt of The Week in Review

Content is restricted to subscribers. To continue reading please Log-In or view our subscription options.

Existing Users Login
Username
Password

Related Archive Files

• No Related Post