Merger

Drilling companies Global Marine Inc. and Santa Fe International Corp. completed their $2.3 billion merger of equals after favorable shareholder votes Tuesday. The combined company will have a large fleet of 59 offshore drilling rigs and 31 land rigs. Under the terms of the deal each share of Global Marine stock was converted into 0.665 of an ordinary share of GlobalSantaFe. Santa Fe International ordinary shares will trade as GlobalSantaFe ordinary shares. The combined company will have approximately 233 million shares outstanding. “Meeting the challenges of our marketplace requires a company that can embrace the changing needs of our customers as well as maintain the financial strength necessary to operate effectively through volatile business cycles,” said GlobalSantaFe CEO C. Stedman “Sted” Garber. GlobalSantaFe’s fourteen-member board of directors includes seven directors from Global Marine’s previous board and seven directors from Santa Fe International’s previous board.

The financial bloodletting at Enron Corp., which may be halted by the announced merger deal with Dynegy Inc., is unlikely to have a significant “domino effect” on other companies in the energy business due to their limited financial exposure to Enron, El Paso Corp. executive Ralph Eads told Wall Street analysts last Wednesday.

Energy merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the United States and abroad could face a slowdown in the near term due to the economic and political uncertainty in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes, according to a report by the Global Energy and Utilities group at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

El Paso Corp. reported that it expects its second quarter earnings to come in between $0.77 and $0.79 per diluted share, net of non-recurring merger and other charges. The company’s estimate compares to the current First Call consensus earnings of $0.76 per share and second quarter 2000 earnings of $0.58 per diluted share.

El Paso Corp. reported that it expects to report second quarter earnings of between $0.77 and $0.79 per diluted share, net of non-recurring merger and other charges. The company’s estimate compares to the current First Call consensus earnings of $0.76 per share and second quarter 2000 earnings of $0.58 per diluted share.

Although its $2 billion acquisition of Portland General Electric is in doubt, Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources likes the law passed last Wednesday by the Nevada legislature because it promises to protect Sierra’s two electric utilities from the soaring western wholesale electricity prices that have eroded the finances of California’s two largest utilities.

Although its $2 billion acquisition of Portland General Electric is in doubt, Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources likes the law passed late Wednesday by the Nevada legislature because it promises to protect Sierra’s two electric utilities from the soaring western wholesale electricity prices that have eroded the finances of California’s two largest utilities.

The European Commission has approved Chevron Corp.’s purchase ofTexaco Inc., clearing one hurdle on its road toward a successfulmerger by possibly this summer. Still to come is the lengthy U.S.approval process, including approval by the U.S. Federal TradeCommission. In a statement, the European Commission said that “thenumber of areas where the companies’ activities overlap in Europeis limited and where they do (overlap), the combined market sharesremain below 15%.” Chevron has sold most of its Europeanoperations: some in 1984 to Texaco, another group to RoyalDutch/Shell Group in 1997 and some to Petroplus in 1998. SanFrancisco-based Chevron agreed to buy Texaco, based in WhitePlains, NY, last October for $35.1 billion in stock and assumeddebt of $7.5 billion (see NGI, Oct. 23, 2000).

The European Commission has approved Chevron Corp.’s purchase ofTexaco Inc., clearing one hurdle on its road toward a successfulmerger by possibly this summer. Still to come is the lengthy U.S.approval process, including approval by the U.S. Federal TradeCommission. In a statement, the European Commission said that “thenumber of areas where the companies’ activities overlap in Europeis limited and where they do (overlap), the combined market sharesremain below 15%.” Chevron has sold most of its Europeanoperations: some in 1984 to Texaco, another group to RoyalDutch/Shell Group in 1997 and some to Petroplus in 1998. SanFrancisco-based Chevron agreed to buy Texaco, based in WhitePlains, NY, last October for $35.1 billion in stock and assumeddebt of $7.5 billion (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17, 2000).