Germany's Siemens AG has agreed to purchase U.S. oilfield equipment maker Dresser-Rand Group Inc for $7.6 billion in cash, paying a relatively rich price to belatedly beef up its presence in the U.S. shale oil and gas industry.The acquisition, which ranks among the biggest in the history of the industrial group, will strengthen Siemens' position in the United States, its weakest region, and bring it nearer catching up with rival General Electric Co.Siemens' oil and gas revenue will increase to around $11 billion, including the acquisition of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc's energy gas turbine and compressor business, announced in May, from less than $7 billion before the two deals.Analysts saw the deal - which coincided with another major German buy in the United States, Merck KGaA's agreed purchase of Sigma-Aldrich Corp, as strategic, but said the price looked high.
Dresser-Rand Group Inc. is a global supplier of of custom-engineered rotating equipment solutions for long-life, critical applications in the oil, gas, chemical, petrochemical, process, power generation, military and other industries worldwide. Shares of DRC traded higher by 2.58% or $2.06/share to $81.97. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $51.46 and as high as $82.50. On average, 1507510 shares of DRC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 28295624.
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