OFT Considering Divestment Offer By Acergy

The Office of Fair Trading or OFT, said Tuesday it is considering an offer of divestment by Acergy S.A. (ACY.OS) to remedy competition concerns raised by its proposed acquisition of SubSea 7 Inc (SUB.OS).

MAIN FACTS:

-Parties overlap in the provision of certain offshore oil field services.

-OFT concluded that the acquisition would not give rise to concerns in relation to the supply of services for diving or construction and remote intervention projects because the merged firm would continue to face significant competition from a number of other service providers in these specific areas.

-OFT also assessed the extent of overlap in the supply of services for pipelay projects in the North Sea.

-It found that the merger would raise competition concerns in relation to the provision of small diameter rigid pipelay services alone and projects which require the provision of both small diameter rigid pipelay and diving services.

-In order to address these competition concerns, the parties have offered to divest one pipelay vessel and, to the extent necessary, one diving vessel to a suitable purchaser.

-By Tapan Panchal, Dow Jones Newswires. Tel [phone], [e-mail]