ADES Holding has completed the acquisition of Saudi Arabian Saipem Limited, buying all of the shares in the drilling subsidiary from Saipem International BV for 1.07 billion riyals, or about 285 million dollars, subject to customary adjustments at completion. The Saudi-listed driller confirmed that all conditions precedent had been satisfied.
The business ADES has bought owns three premium jackup rigs, Perro Negro 7, 8 and 10, and leases two further units, Perro Negro 11 and 13. Four of the five rigs work in Saudi Arabia and the fifth operates in Mexico under charter.
The transaction is a consolidation trade rather than an expansion one, and the distinction is the whole story. Saudi Aramco suspended or deferred a substantial number of jackup contracts across the market over the past two years, which left contractors holding idle units and fixed costs against them. In a market with too much iron chasing too few contracts, the operators who survive are the ones who can absorb a competitor's fleet and crew it against their own existing contract book rather than bidding against it.
ADES is better placed than most to do that. It is majority owned by the Public Investment Fund, it is the largest jackup operator in the kingdom by rig count, and its scale gives it the shore base, supply chain and crewing depth to run acquired rigs at a lower marginal cost than a subscale competitor could. Buying out an international contractor's local arm removes a bidder from the market at the same time as it adds capacity, which is worth more in a soft market than the rigs themselves.
For Saipem the logic runs the other way. The Italian group has been narrowing its portfolio toward offshore engineering and construction and away from owned drilling assets, and a clean exit from a market where the national oil company controls demand is consistent with that direction. Selling to the incumbent rather than to a new entrant also realises value that a slower wind-down would not.
The Mexican charter is the one piece that does not fit neatly. It gives ADES a unit working outside its home market and outside the Arabian Gulf, which is either a small diversification or a loose end, depending on whether the company intends to build a position there.
ADES Holding is listed on the Saudi Exchange and operates onshore and offshore drilling rigs across the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf of Mexico.
