HAL Of An Oil Services Deal ?

Mergers + Acquisitions activity in the Commodity/Commodity Services sector remains strong. Couple that FACT with one of my favorite energy stocks, Halliburton (up 46% the past 3 months, including a smoking one month return of +26%) and you've got a blog.

According to the below link from Bloomberg, Halliburton (HAL), the world's 2nd largest oilfield contractor (produces both natural gas + crude oil), is close to issuing an approx $3.5 Billion ALL CASH offer to acquire UK-based Expro International Group.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=HAL:US&sid=adIL8qo8YrnM

Some Takeaways:
*Takeovers of companies that make drilling equipment or provide services for energy producers have resulted in more than $45 billion of deals announced so far in 2008

*Expro, which makes equipment to test deep-sea oil wells, would help Halliburton compete with larger rival Schlumberger (SLB) by adding Production Testing to its oilfield services

*Production Testing is performed on actual fluid produced by an oil well in order to gather information about its reservoir

*Companies owned by oil-rich countries, seeking to keep a larger share of revenue, are hiring Halliburton, Schlumberger and other contractors to do work previously handled by international giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), which require a STAKE in a project

*Expro International currently trades at about 11.9 times earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortization

*Anecdotally, I LOVE the idea of this being an ALL CASH offer...No dilution for current shareholders of the STOCK!

Data Courtesy: Bloomberg.com, snagged on 4/18/08.
Full Disclosure: I own shares of HAL.