InsightsMiddle Market M&A in the Offshore IndustryMarket volatility for the petroleum sector provides a backdrop to an evolving Merger By Harry Ward& Acquisitions environment for the Offshore Sector.n the 3Q edition of Maritime Professional, this series of SantaFe Corporation from Siem Industries and the $2.5 bil-articles examined the overall evolution of maritime and lion acquisition of TODCO by Hercules Offshore (NasdaqGS: Ioffshore M&A activity since 2010, tracing the ? ow of HERO). deals in the post-? nancial crisis era. In this edition, we take a After reaching a peak in both volume and total value during closer look at relevant U.S. offshore energy industry deal ? ow 2007, the M&A market quickly reversed as the ? nancial crisis and market movements as they relate to oil prices over time, approached and oil prices plummeted through 2008. Despite and highlight some recent middle market transactions. a few periods of volatility in the six years of uneven recov-Volatility in the petroleum markets is a constant refrain and ery, deal counts in the segment have largely rebounded and seems to surprise even the best analysts more often than not. remained somewhat predictable. It is worth noting that North Figure 1 displays a comparison of marine and offshore M&A American oil and gas terrestrial M&A markets were much deal ? ow with average world crude oil prices over the past more active and volatile through this period, as the fracking ten years. Financial markets as de? ned by deal ? ow tended and shale booms rapidly evolved.to slightly lead, or anticipate the upward surge in oil prices between 2004 and 2007. Looking to the wider markets, annual Recent Market Movesglobal deal counts more than tripled in the narrowly-de? ned Fast forward to the second half of 2014, and volatility has segment through this period, capped by megadeals such as begun to grow in both the crude oil and ? nancial markets. Fig-Transocean’s (NYSE:RIG) $6 billion acquisition of Global- ure 2 shows a public company offshore index that includes 16 Maritime Professional 4Q 2014I I 1-17 Q4 MP2014.indd 16 1-17 Q4 MP2014.indd 16 11/17/2014 2:49:52 PM11/17/2014 2:49:52 PM