Noble Corporation Closes Acquisition of Frontier Drilling

Noble Corporation NE today announced that it has closed its acquisition of FDR Holdings Limited. The acquisition of Frontier, formerly an independent drilling company, and previously announced agreements with Shell increase Noble's drilling fleet size to 69 from 62 units, with the addition of three dynamically positioned drillships, two conventionally moored drillships, including one which is Arctic-class, and a conventionally moored deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig. Additionally, as a result of this acquisition, Noble will own and operate a dynamically positioned floating production, storage, offloading vessel (FPSO). The closing comes one month after Noble's June 28, 2010 announcement that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Frontier in a transaction that values the enterprise at $2.16 billion. The transaction was financed with proceeds from the Company's $1.25 billion bond offering on July 21, 2010 and cash on hand. The Company did not utilize a bridge financing facility that had been previously arranged.