Halliburton, Baker Hughes Agree To Extend Closing Deadline To April

(RTTNews) - Halliburton Co. (HAL) and Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) agreed to extend the time period for closing transaction to no later than April 30, 2016, as permitted under the merger agreement, though the parties would proceed with closing prior to such date if all relevant competition approvals have been obtained.

Halliburton and Baker Hughes announced that they expect that their timing agreement with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice or DOJ will expire without reaching a settlement or the DOJ initiating litigation at this time to block their pending transaction.

The DOJ has informed the companies that it does not believe that the remedies offered to date are sufficient to address the DOJ's concerns, but acknowledged that they would assess further proposals and look forward to continued cooperation from the parties in their continuing investigation.

The companies intend to continue their discussions with the DOJ, and remain focused on completing the transaction as early as possible in 2016, but there is no guarantee that an agreement with the DOJ or other competition authorities will be reached.

As previously announced, the boards of directors of both Halliburton and Baker Hughes unanimously approved the Merger Agreement and the stockholders of each company overwhelmingly approved the transaction.

Halliburton and Baker Hughes are also continuing to work constructively to resolve any remaining issues with the European Commission and all other competition enforcement authorities that have expressed an interest in the proposed transaction. The pending acquisition has received regulatory clearances in Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Turkey.

In November 2014, Halliburton had agreed to acquire smaller peer Baker Hughes in a cash and stock deal valued at $78.62 per Baker Hughes share or a total of $34.6 billion. The deal represented an enterprise value of $38 billion.