Maurel & Prom

We took the lead role in advising long-standing client M&P on the sale of its French oil drilling and work-over subsidiary Caroil to Tuscany Rig Leasing S.A. M&P is a leading French hydrocarbon exploration and production group, based in Paris and listed on Euronext. Tuscany Rig Leasing S.A. is the Luxembourg subsidiary of Tuscany, a TSX listed Canadian oilfield services group.

While Caroil is headquartered in Paris, its fleet of 15 land-based oil rigs are all situated in Africa or South America and consequently Caroil has branches or business interests in Colombia, Cameroon, Gabon, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo.

Travers Smith acted as lead international counsel, leading the negotiations and managing the transaction for M&P, liaising closely with advisers in France, Canada, Tanzania and Luxembourg, as well as M&P's in-house counsel. In addition, our role included conducting due diligence on Tuscany and its worldwide subsidiaries, assisting with significant Canadian securities law considerations arising out of the need for Tuscany shareholder approval and the fact that M&P became a major shareholder in Tuscany (a significant part of the consideration was satisfied in Tuscany shares and warrants over Tuscany shares), obtaining Tanzanian Fair Competition Commission approval, and making a Colombian notification for competition purposes. 

“This was a complicated, multi-jurisdictional transaction and just the sort of deal that we turn to Travers Smith for. The Travers team expertly managed the process and provided us with the first-class service that we have come to expect.”

Duncan Williams, General Counsel, M&P 

We have advised M&P on transactions around the world for a number of years, most notably recently in connection with the US$748 million sale of their subsidiary Hocol to Ecopetrol in 2009.