Noble Corp. Agrees To Buy Diamond Offshore Drilling In $15.52/shr Stock Plus Cash Deal

(RTTNews) - Noble Corporation plc (NE) agreed to buy Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (DO) in a stock plus cash transaction.

As part of the transaction, Diamond shareholders will receive 0.2316 shares of Noble, plus cash consideration of $5.65 per share for each share of Diamond stock. Upon closing, Diamond shareholders will own about 14.5% of Noble's outstanding shares.

The implied cash and stock consideration to be received by Diamond shareholders is $15.52 per share, representing a premium of 11.4% to Diamond's closing share price on June 7, 2024.

Noble plans to fund the cash portion of the transaction through new debt financing, which Noble has secured through a $600 million committed bridge financing facility. At closing, the Noble Board of Directors will be expanded to include one member from the Diamond Board.

The transaction is expected to close by the first quarter of 2025.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of each company.

In addition, Noble announced that its board has approved a 25% increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.50 per share, starting with the dividend which is to be paid in the third quarter of 2024.