Ensco Plc (ESV.N) will buy rival Pride International Inc (PDE.N) for about $7.3 billion in a deal that will create the world's second-largest offshore oil and gas driller. The deal, announced by the companies on Monday, sets the purchase price for Pride's shares at $41.60 apiece, a premium of 21 percent to Friday's closing price, and will give Ensco new access to lucrative deepwater markets off Brazil and west Africa. "Pride and Ensco combined are going to be in all the major oil-producing regions now," said Kurt Hallead, co-head of global energy research at RBC Capital Markets in Austin, Texas.
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