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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wowzer who wrote (46210)	6/10/1999 11:53:00 AM
From: Wowzer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

WG If anybody is interested I found the Tulsa article: search.tulsaworld.com Willbros candidate for buyout By RUSSELL RAY World Staff Writer 6/9/99 Shares of Willbros Group Inc. rose 20 percent Tuesday amid speculation the company might be acquired. Tulsa-based Willbros has been "aggressively repurchasing its stock in the past 12 months at higher prices," said Fred Russell, a Tulsa money manager. Willbros shares closed at $7.94, up from Monday's closing price of $6.62. The independent contractor provides construction, engineering and other oilfield-related services to the oil and gas industry. The company's chief financial officer, Melvin Spreitzer, said several investors are interested Willbros and are encouraged by the improving oil and gas market. Spreitzer said he could not comment on buyout rumors. "I've received a number of calls from a number of potential investors," he said. "But I really don't have anything specific that I can tell you." Willbros traces its history to the founders of Tulsa- based Williams, but the operation was divested in the 1970s. Willbros employs 3,000 people worldwide and has subsidiaries in Nigeria, Oman and Indonesia and the United States. The company recently was awarded a contract by Duke Energy International to help construct a 494-mile natural gas pipeline in Australia. The project will generate about $35 million for Willbros. Willbros is a likely buyout candidate because it has little debt and its stock is trading at a price that is 10 percent to 20 percent below the company's liquidation value, said Russell, the namesake of Frederic E. Russell Investment Management Co. He agreed that an upturn in the oil and gas market makes Willbros an attractive investment. As oil prices ascend from record lows, new business may be generated for oil-service related companies like Willbros, Russell said. An improved market should foster capital projects such as pipeline construction. "There will be some rethinking about big capital expenditures and there will be more optimism in the corporate board rooms," he said. "That will lead them to build more pipelines." Major oil and gas companies have consolidated in order to weather a depressed oil and gas market. Oil-service related companies may have to do the same in light of today's oil prices, which remain low. "Just as the exploration and production companies have had to consolidate, there's no reason why the construction companies won't have to," Russell said. Last month, Willbros reported a first-quarter loss of $7.1 million. In the same quarter a year ago, the company had earnings of $3 million. Officials attributed the loss to a lack of building activity. On April 1, the company's board of directors adopted a stockholder rights plan. Officials said the plan was designed to ensure that Willbros' stockholders "received fair and equal treatment in the event of any proposed takeover of the company and to deter coercive takeover tactics that attempt to gain control of Willbros without paying all stockholders a fair price." The rights will be exercisable only if a person or group acquires 15 percent or more of Willbros' common stock or announces a tender offer, the consummation of which would result in ownership by a person or group of 15 percent or more of the common stock. Willbros said it distributed one preferred share purchase right on each outstanding share of common stock. Russell Ray, World business writer, can be reached at 581-8380 or via e-mail at russell.ray@tulsaworld.com.