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

To: The Perfect Hedge who wrote (13605)	3/4/1998 3:58:00 PM
From: ViperChick Secret Agent 006.9	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

because Venezuala is opening its mouth....and telling Saudi Arabia to stick it...

To: The Perfect Hedge who wrote (13605)	3/4/1998 4:02:00 PM
From: Teddy	Respond to of 95453

EVI Buy Of Weatherford Seen As Sensible But Pricey By Loren Fox NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--EVI Inc.'s (EVI) $2.6 billion acquisition of fellow oil-services company Weatherford Enterra Inc. (WII) creates a strategically well-fit company, but at a full price, observers said. "It's an excellent merger," said Byron Dunn, an analyst at SBC Warburg Dillon Read & Co. As reported, EVI agreed earlier Wednesday to buy Weatherford in an exchange of 0.95 EVI shares for each Weatherford share, or roughly $50.17 per Weatherford share. The merger would create an oilfield equipment giant, with a combined stock market value of $5.1 billion, that would have had $2 billion in revenues last year. It marries EVI, a large maker of drill pipe and well completion equipment, with Weatherford, best known as the leader in oilfield equipment rentals. The merged company, to be called EVI Weatherford, will be able to offer a full range of production and completion products and services for oil and natural-gas producers. That's important because, despite the greater size of its pipe business, EVI's growth in the next few years is going to be driven by its oil tools operation, Dunn said. Weatherford's rental business expands the distribution of EVI's many oilfield tools. In addition, Weatherford is already the largest buyer of EVI's drill pipe. "Strategically, it makes a lot of sense, it's just a question of price," said William Herbert, an analyst at energy boutique investment bank Howard Weil Labouisse Friedrichs Inc. Wall Street analysts said EVI seems to be paying a fairly full price for Weatherford. The question is whether the deal will end up diluting EVI's earnings. Herbert said the companies need to come up with $50 million in cost savings or synergies to keep the merger from reducing EVI's earnings. In a statement, the companies said they have so far identified $40 million in potential savings. The deal brings to an end long-term speculation about the fate of Weatherford. The company was formed in 1995, when Weatherford bought Enterra Corp. for $540 million. Besides the fact that some company-watchers believe Weatherford paid too much, the integration process proved somewhat rocky. There were some rumors of a Weatherford takeover a year ago, when the position of chief executive had been vacant for several months. But Thomas Bates took over in June as CEO. Bates will become president and chief operating officer of the new company. EVI Chairman and CEO Bernard Duroc-Danner will retain those positions at the new company. Duroc-Danner is respected in the industry and has been praised by Wall Street for building up EVI through more than 40 acquisitions in the past decade. Market activity suggested some doubts on price. Recently, shares of EVI were down 2 13/16, or 5.3%, at 50; shares of Weatherford were up 1 3/4, or 4%, at 45 3/4. By contrast, when Halliburton Co. (HAL) agreed on Feb. 26 to buy Dresser Industries Inc. (DI) in the oil-services industry's largest-ever merger, Halliburton's stock rose. -Loren Fox; 201-938-5267; loren.fox@cor.dowjones.com

To: The Perfect Hedge who wrote (13605)	3/4/1998 4:04:00 PM
From: Teddy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

EVI, Weatherford Execs See Merger Closing In June NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Top executives of EVI Inc. (EVI) and Weatherford Enterra Inc. (WII) said they their planned merger could close in late June, following shareholder votes of the two oilfield equipment companies. That assumes the companies will file for antitrust approval in roughly two weeks and file with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of March, the executives said in a conference call with analysts Wednesday to discuss the deal. As reported, EVI agreed earlier to buy Weatherford in an exchange of 0.95 EVI shares for each Weatherford share, or roughly $50.17 per Weatherford share. That values the acquisition at roughly $2.6 billion. The merger would create the fourth-largest oil-services company with a combined stock market value of $5.1 billion, which would have had $2 billion in revenues last year. It marries EVI, a large maker of drill pipe and well completion equipment, with Weatherford, best known as the leader in oilfield equipment rentals. The merged company, to be called EVI Weatherford, will be able to offer a full range of production and completion products and services for oil and natural-gas producers. The companies expect the combination to create $40 million in annual pretax cost savings in 1999, mostly because of consolidation of their North American distribution systems and consolidation of some administrative operations, said EVI Chairman and Chief Executive Bernard Duroc-Danner. Duroc-Danner will retain those positions at the merger company, to be called EVI Weatherford. But Weatherford Chief Executive Thomas Bates, who will become the new company's chief operating officer, said, "This is a growth story, this is not a consolidation story." The executives said they expect the combination to generate at least $50 million of additional revenues in 1999 from business synergies. Based on the cost savings and the synergies, the executives said they expect the merger to prove accretive to earnings starting in 1999, and accretive to cash flow starting in 1998. Duroc-Danner said he doesn't expect the merger to raise any antitrust issues. Merrill Lynch & Co. and Simmons & Co. were the investment bankers for Weatherford, and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter gave a fairness opinion to EVI.