TRANSOCEAN OFFSHORE INC

8 story beats from 1996 to 1999

The story so far

The events that changed the company's story, in plain English, each written against everything known about the company at the time. The dot shows whether it was good, bad or neutral for shareholders.

1999

19 Mar
FY1998 10-K: revenue reached $1,090 million and net income $343 million ($3.41/share diluted) - more than double 1997's $142 million - marking the peak of the 1990s offshore drilling upcycle just days after the Cayman Islands reorganization was announced.
annual report
15 Mar
The board approved reorganizing Transocean Offshore from a Delaware corporation into a Cayman Islands corporation - Chairman/CEO J. Michael Talbert cited growing international business as the rationale - with operations continuing unchanged under the new parent.
other material event

1998

20 Mar
FY1997 10-K: revenue nearly doubled to $892 million (from $529 million) and net income rose to $141.9 million ($1.38/share diluted, from $78.0 million/$1.07 in 1996) as the offshore drilling market strengthened and a full year of Transocean ASA was consolidated.
annual report

1997

3 Apr
A year-delayed follow-up to the September 1996 Transocean ASA combination: disclosed the company had kept buying additional Transocean ASA shares through Nov-Dec 1996 for about $91 million cash, lifting its stake from 94% to over 99%, and filed updated pro forma combined financials.
business combination
21 Mar
FY1996 10-K: net income $78.0 million ($1.07/share diluted, as later restated), up from $46.9 million in 1995, reflecting high rig utilization plus four months of consolidated Transocean ASA results after the September combination.
annual report

1996

18 Sept
The exchange offer closed Sept 3, 1996: Sonat Offshore Drilling acquired ~94% of Transocean ASA for 22,920,840 of its own shares plus $207.4 million cash, then renamed itself Transocean Offshore Inc. and raised its authorized share count to 150,000,000. A follow-on Norwegian-law-mandated cash offer for the remaining public shares was expected shortly.
business combination
29 July
Registered up to 28,652,037 shares of common stock to be exchanged for 54,060,448 Transocean ASA shares - the formal Securities Act registration for the exchange offer first announced in April.
business combination
11 June
Sonat Offshore Drilling Inc. disclosed a fast-moving takeover courtship of Norway's Transocean ASA via a chain of April-May 1996 press releases: an April 25 unsolicited proposal, a May 2 agreement in principle, a May 10 update that Transocean chose Sonat over a rival bidder, and a May 20 revised offer under which Tiger Management Corp (owner of ~17.2% of Transocean) agreed to tender its shares.
business combination