Hercules Makes Final Takeover Bid for Discovery Offshore

In a stock exchange filing this afternoon, Hercules Offshore announced their offer to acquire all the remaining shares of jack-up drilling firm Discovery Offshore S.A. at a price of NOK 15.00 per share.

Discovery Offshore is a pure-play, ultra high-specification jackup drilling company, with two rigs, the Discovery Triumph and Discovery Resilience, under construction at Keppel FELS.  Once delivered in the second and fourth quarters of 2013, they were scheduled to be placed under full operational and commercial management of Hercules.

On 24 June 2013, Hercules acquired a 50 percent stake in Discovery Offshore, today’s announcement marks Hercules’ mandatory bid for all remaining shares in accordance with the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

John T. Rynd, Chief Executive Officer and President of Hercules Offshore commented in a statement on their website,

“Discovery Offshore was conceived by us over two years ago as a way to enter into the high-specification jackup market. The two Discovery rigs are world-class assets with market leading capabilities that place them among the highest specification jackup rigs in the world. These rigs will significantly expand our service offerings to the most demanding drilling customers, and open new international markets that have growing needs for assets of this caliber. With construction of both Discovery rigs nearing completion, we feel conditions are right for us to acquire the entire entity.”

Discovery Offshore S.A.’s jackups are based on the advanced Keppel FELS “Super A” Class proprietary design.