Great Lakes' OSCA Biz To Merge With BJ Services

25 February 2002 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

Houston's BJ Services Company will merge with OSCA Inc., Great Lakes Chemical Corp.'s oil and gas well completion products subsidiary, for $28 per share or $420 million. Great Lakes, which owns 53 percent of OSCA, stands to gain roughly $200 million as a result of the deal.

"The transaction not only allows Great Lakes to focus on our growth opportunities in water treatment, polymer additives and performance chemicals, it meaningfully reduces our debt leverage and provides us with one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry," says Mark Bulriss, chairman, president and CEO of Great Lakes.

BJ Services, which provides pressure pumping and other oil field services to the petroleum industry, suggests that the acquisition is part of the company's strategy to increase its presence in the global completion tool business. "OSCA's technically advanced offering of completion tools combined with BJ's extensive geographic market presence provides an attractive opportunity for expansion of the product line," says J.W. Stewart, CEO of BJ Services.

The company hopes to achieve $15 million to $20 million in operating cost synergies from the merger. In addition, it expects the deal to be accretive to earnings in fiscal 2003.

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