Paris-based contractor Coflexip Stena Offshore SA said Friday that it had capped the $625 million acquisition, first announced last October, of Aker Maritime ASA's Deepwater Company business unit.
The deal under which CSO agreed to buy the Norwegian contractor's Houston-based deepwater division will see the French company purchase some $513 million in shares and take on net debt of $112 million.
CSO said the purchase was being financed through its "own resources and by new lines of credit."
Aker said the sale would free capital worth some 5.9 billion krone and gives the group a pre-tax gain of 3.7 billion krone. Following the sale of the Deepwater Company, and the disposal of its seismic arm, Aker Geo, the Aker group has been reduced to two business units: Aker Oil & Gas, and Products and Well Services.
When CSO and Aker signed the deal, the French contractor said the takeover would "provide new opportunities that neither of the groups could, have accessed independently."
"(Aker's) deepwater division's strong presence in the Gulf of Mexico and its ability to access West African markets and the Caspian Sea completes CSO's strong operations in the North Sea, Brazil, West Africa, and Asia Pacific," said CSO.
The acquisition will allow CSO to use expertise in offshore production concepts such as FPSOs, semisubmersibles, and tension leg platforms. It will be one of only two companies with exclusive rights to the deepwater Spar technology used on Gulf of Mexico developments like Chevron Corp.'s Genesis field and ExxonMobil Corp.'s Diana/Hoover field.