| Scorpion Offshore, a US company listed in Norway, has five ultra-premium LeTourneau Super 116 jack-up rigs on order at Keppel AmFels, a Texas-based shipyard, and it has already taken delivery of one rig. |
| Great Offshore offers a broad spectrum of services to upstream oil and gas producers for E&P activities. The company has a fleet size of over 40 offshore vessels, including two exploratory rigs. |
| GOL Managing Director Vijay Sheth declined to comment on the proposed acquisition. Ashutosh Maheswari, head of investment banking, Motilal Oswal, also declined to comment. |
| Industry sources, however, pointed out that the company was yet to finalise a special funding pattern with leading banks for the acquisition. At a recent board meeting GOL had offered Exim Bank 15 lakh preference shares of Rs 1,000 each, optionally convertible into equity shares, at a price of Rs 875 a share. |
| According to industry sources negotiations for the acquisition were at an advanced stage. |
| Oil and gas exploration & production companies, among them Reliance Industries and ONGC, are facing a shortage of drilling rigs and rig construction yards are overbooked till 2011. Scorpion Offshore's five rigs will, therefore, be a big asset for Great Offshore. Each rig can fetch $1,90,000 a day on a yearly contract. A five-year contract could get about $1,50,000 a day. |
| Meanwhile, the GOL scrip lost 2.57 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday, to close at Rs 794.30, from its previous close of Rs 815.25. |
| Great Offshore was formed by a demerger of Great Eastern Shipping Company's offshore business. Leading rig services companies in the country include Aban Loyd, Greatship India (a subsidiary of GE Shipping), Mercator Lines and Jindal Offshore. |
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