Regulators have asked Noble to sell the repair platform and associated offshore and onshore assets to complete the deal.

The UK competition watchdog has now completed its review of the business combination between two offshore drilling contractors, Noble Corp. and Maersk Drilling.

The two platform owners announced their business combination on 10 November 2021 and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into the proposed merger in February 2022.

On May 9, 2022, CMA published its decision that there were reasonable grounds to believe that CMA could approve the sale of certain platforms to appropriate buyers together with adequate supporting infrastructure to address its concerns regarding reduced competition. combination of two contractors.

On June 23, 2022, Noble announced that it had entered into an asset purchase agreement to sell five jackup rigs (Noble Hans Deul, Noble Sam Hartley, Noble Sam Turner, Noble Houston Colbert and Noble Lloyd Noble) to a Shelf Drilling subsidiary. .

The CMA announced today that it has accepted legally binding commitments from Noble and Maersk Drilling. This commitment required Noble to sell the repair rig, and associated offshore and onshore personnel and related assets and operations, to the Shelf Drilling subsidiary. Acceptance of these efforts means that CMA has decided not to refer the business combination for a detailed Phase 2 review and completed CMA’s review of the combination.

Following this announcement, all merger control conditions have been met for Noble’s voluntary public offering of shares, which was launched on August 8.

In addition to a number of other ordinary conditions, including receipt of approval for Topco’s listing of shares on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Copenhagen, completion of the exchange offer remains conditional on Topco’s approval of the offering. the outstanding share capital and voting rights of Maersk Drilling, excluding treasury shares owned by Maersk Drilling. The bidding period for the exchange offer is expected to end on September 8, 2022.

Topco will own the Noble, Maersk Drilling and their respective subsidiaries after the merger is complete.

Last month Noble said it saw an increase in demand for offshore drilling rigs and hoped this positive momentum would continue.