Aker Solutions To Expand Middle East Presence With NPS Energy Purchase
To buy NPS Energy, gaining well-intervention services in Middle East & North Africa, gaining coil tubing, wire-line services, cementing, pressure pumping, well logging & other services.
Aker Solutions ASA, Oslo, (Oslo: AKSO) plans to buy NPS Energy, which is part of Dubai, U.A.E.-based oilfield services company National Petroleum Services (Kuwait: NAPESCO), for US$460 million in equity and assumed debt.
Aker Solutions will pay an equity value of US$350 million and assume approximately US$110 million in net interest bearing debt at the time of closing.
NPS Energy has a strong presence in the Middle East and North Africa and has core offerings in well intervention services, including coil tubing, wire-line services, cementing, pressure pumping, well logging and testing, and onshore drilling services. It also provides perforation equipment.
Aker Solutions executive chairman Øyvind Eriksen says, “After the divestment of our non-oil and gas related business in 2010 and the demerger from the EPC contractor Kvaerner in 2011, this is our next major step in the transformation of Aker Solutions into a leading and global oilfield products, systems and services company.”
Aker Solutions' presence and activities in the Middle East have primarily focused on well intervention services in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Eriksen says, “In order to succeed in the region, we need a strong distribution platform and well established customer relationships managed by a management team with a proven track record. Basically, this is what we achieve by acquiring NPS Energy.”
NPS Energy is headed by Adnan Ghabris. He will remain in this function and also assume the role of Aker Solutions' regional president for the Middle East and North Africa region.
Ghabris says, “Today we have a strong position within well intervention services in the Middle East and North Africa region. We aim to strengthen this further by introducing Aker Solutions' technologies, such as wire-line tractors and down-hole tools, to our existing customers. There is also a significant potential in introducing Aker Solutions' process systems, surface wellheads and drilling technologies, to name a few, into this region.”