Houston-based Paragon Offshore has launched a bid to take over Prospector Offshore Drilling by buying 55.8% of the Oslo stock market-listed drilling firm's stock.
Paragon, which spun out of Noble Corporation in August this year, said it now intends to launch a mandatory tender offer for the remaining outstanding shares in the firm, within four weeks, and request that Prospector elect three new Paragon designated directors to the Prospector board.
Image: Prospector 1.
Prospector, which was set up in 2010, by former Noble Drilling executive Robert Rose, owns and operates two high-specification Friede and Goldman JU-2000E jackups, both of which are contracted to Total for use in the UK North Sea.
The first unit, Prospector 1, is contracted until September 2016 at a dayrate of US$185,000. The second unit, Prospector 5, is contracted for three years following contract commencement at a dayrate of $218,000.
Combined, the contracts have backlog of $384 million. Both contracts contain customer options for an additional term (three years and two years, respectively) at the same dayrates.
Prospector has three additional JU-2000E jackups under construction at the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) yard in China, the same yard that delivered Prospector 5.
These three units, Prospector 6, Prospector 7, and Prospector 8, have published delivery dates of December 2014, September 2015 and March 2016. Prospector has the option to delay the delivery of Prospector 6 by up to 4 months.
Each of the JU-2000E units are heavy-duty, harsh environment jackups capable of operating in water depths up to 400ft, with derricks rated for static hook loads of 2 million lb, and maximum variable deck loads of 14,3 million lb.
Paragon Offshore has five drillships, three semisubmersible drilling units and 34 jackups. It was spun out of Noble as part of a decision to separate the firm's high-specification ultradeepwater units from the standard specification shallow, mid- and deepwater units.
"The acquisition of the majority of the outstanding shares of Prospector Offshore is a significant step in Paragon's long-term strategy to upgrade our fleet," said Paragon CEO and President Randall D. Stilley. "The inclusion of Prospector's existing rigs into Paragon's fleet reduces our average rig age, upgrades our technical capabilities, and adds backlog with a key customer in an important operating region where Paragon already has economies of scale. Furthermore, the rigs under construction provide optionality for future growth. We look forward to launching the tender for the remaining shares of Prospector as quickly as possible."
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