Weatherford To Sell Engineered Chemistry And Integrity Drilling Fluids Business

(RTTNews) - Weatherford International plc (WFT) announced a definitive agreement with an affiliate of The Lubrizol Corp., a Berkshire Hathaway company, for the sale of the company's engineered chemistry and Integrity drilling fluids business. The businesses will be sold for $750 million in cash, subject to customary purchase price adjustments, plus a potential increase of $75 million for an earnout that is tied to the post-closing performance of the businesses. The company said the proceeds from the sale will be used to pay down debt.

Bernard Duroc-Danner, CEO of Weatherford said: "The agreement is another step in Weatherford's previously announced plans to divest the Company's non-core businesses. This transaction brings our realized cash divestiture proceeds to approximately $1.8 billion during 2014 and implies that our net debt will range between $6.6 billion to $6.8 billion at year end 2014. This is substantial progress."