Patterson-UTI Energy, an oilfield services company with major operations in the northeast, has just cut a deal to buy out a second company in a deal worth roughly $220 million. The company getting bought is MS Energy Services, a leading provider of directional drilling services in most U.S. shale plays, including a big presence in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale. It was only April of this year that Patterson completed a buyout of Seventy Seven Energy (SSE) in an all-stock deal worth $1.76 billion (see Patterson-UTI Energy Completes Merger with Seventy Seven Energy). SSE is the former Chesapeake Oilfield Operating company, the oilfield services subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy that Chessy spun out into its own company in July 2014 after it couldn’t find anyone to buy it. Since then, Patterson has absorbed and put to work SSE’s large drilling rig fleet. MS Energy is a much smaller competitor–with a specialization in directional drilling. The MS deal is similar to the SSE deal in that most of it is a stock swap. Patterson is giving MS Energy 8.8 million shares of stock worth (at yesterday’s opening value of $16.65 per share), $146.5 million. The deal also calls for an additional $75 million in cash. Add it together, and you get roughly $221.5 million. MS Energy’s CEO and COO are both getting jobs at Patterson as part of the deal. Here’s the lowdown on Patterson’s latest acquisition…
