Weatherford Closes Sale Of Engineered Chemistry, Drilling Fluids Businesses

(RTTNews) - Irish oilfield service company Weatherford International plc (WFT) on Wednesday said it has closed the sale of its engineered chemistry and Integrity drilling fluids businesses to an affiliate of Lubrizol Corp, a Berkshire Hathaway company, for a purchase price of $750 million, subject to a customary post-closing working capital adjustment.

Weatherford may also receive a potential increase of $75 million from an earnout tied to the post-closing performance of the disposed businesses during the twelve month period after the closing date. Cash proceeds from the sale will be used to repay or repurchase debt.

In addition, on December 23, the company completed the disposition of all of its shares of Proserv Group Inc. As previously announced, Proserv was acquired by affiliates of investor Riverstone Holdings LLC, in partnership with Proserv management. Proceeds received by Weatherford were used to repay or repurchase debt.

Bernard J. Duroc-Danner, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Weatherford stated: "We are pleased with the closing of these transactions. The divestments are another step in Weatherford's previously announced plans to monetize the company's non-core businesses. These transactions bring our total realized cash divestiture proceeds to over $1.7 billion for 2014."