Halliburton bids $3.4B for Expro, may start bidding war

LONDON -- Halliburton's all-cash proposal of $30.14 a share is richer than the $28.36-per-share offer made in April by a consortium led by Candover Partners, which valued the company at $3.16 billion.

An Expro statement said the Halliburton proposal "does not yet constitute a firm intention to make an offer" and is subject to preconditions.

Houston-based Halliburton, which provides services and equipment to oil and natural gas companies, said it considers Expro's sub-sea and flow management sector to be an area of potential expansion. Expro's primary focus is providing services and products to measure and control the flow of oil and gas from wells.

Oil and gas industry services providers such as Expro have benefited as record energy prices prompt companies to boost spending on exploration and development of reserves.

This has attracted bidding interest from private equity firms and trade buyers for oil field services firms, with the tussle for Expro following other deals in the sector.

On April 17, Expro agreed to the bid from Candover.

On April 18, Halliburton announced it was mulling a counterbid, saying: "The offer would be based on Halliburton's analysis of synergy and other benefits that could be derived from combining its business with Expro and consistent with the company's previously espoused strategy of making acquisitions which are accretive to shareholder value".

Evolution Securities analyst Keith Morris said from a share price point of view "we are there or thereabouts" and that Halliburton, as a trade buyer, should be able to pay more than private equity which cannot extract any synergies.

Following news of the Halliburton offer a spokeswoman for Candover said: "Obviously we are looking at the situation."

Expro holds proprietary technology for oil-well maintenance, which is still in testing and whose value depends on bidders taking a gamble on its future, analysts say.