BW Offshore takes 80% of APL

Norwegian oilfield services player BW Offshore has bought a further 28.1% stake in offshore technology group Advance Production and Loading (APL), giving it control of 80% of the company's outstanding stock.

In February, the APL and BW Offshore boards agreed to recommend to shareholders a merger of the two companies to create a bigger player in the floating production, storage and offloading sector.

On 30 April BW Offshore extended its takeover offer to 8 May after the initial offer fell short short of the required 80% acceptance.

As well as earlier acceptances, BW Offshore said it bought 11.3 million APL shares yesterday.

"Upon completion of the voluntary offer, BW Offshore will own a total of 32.3 million APL shares, equal to 80% of the current total number of outstanding shares in APL," BW Offshore said in a statement.