By Bojan Lepic
Copyright splash247
Saudi oil and gas driller ADES has made an improved offer to buy all issued and outstanding shares of Dubai-based Shelf Drilling.
ADES and Shelf Drilling agreed on revised terms of the proposed merger whereby the cash consideration is increased to NOK 18.50 ($1.89) per share.
This revised cash consideration has received irrevocable pre-commitments, with 53.4% of the votes in favour of the proposed merger, compared to 15% of the pre-commitments received before the announcement of the previous offer.
The merger with the revised offer is unanimously recommended by the board of directors of Shelf Drilling.
The initial offer was NOK 14.00 per share ($1.43). At the time, the share price was a 62% premium to the Shelf Drilling share closing price of NOK 8.64 ($0.88) on August 4.
The new and improved offer was made after the consideration of Shelf Drilling’s current trading, jackup market fundamentals, as well as $10m upwards revised cost synergies estimate to $50-60m on an annual basis from previously announced $40-50m. All other terms of the merger remain unchanged.
The shareholder approval of the revised offer will be sought at an extraordinary general meeting set to be held on or about October 6, 2025. The closing of the sale is still expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2025.
