Aker Kvaerner Acquires Drilling Technology Company

Aker Kvaerner has signed an agreement for acquisition of 50 percent of the shares in the German company Wirth Maschinen- und Bohrgeräte-Fabrik GmbH ("Wirth") with an option to buy the remaining shares within the next years. Wirth is a quality supplier of drilling equipment such as mud pumps, drawworks and components for top drives. In addition the company provides tunnel and foundation boring machines for infrastructure projects and products for the mining and processing industries. Wirth has been a key supplier for the Aker Kvaerner subsidiary Aker Kvaerner MH for more than 20 years and Wirth's products have been included in many of the complete drilling packages recently awarded to Aker Kvaerner MH.

Wirth is a privately held company headquartered in Erkelenz, Germany, and currently employs 480 people. In addition to the operations in Erkelenz, Wirth has subsidiaries and joint ventures in the US, China, Italy and Ukraine. Wirth's products are shipped to global markets. The company's revenue in 2006 amounted to 140 million Euros and has a strong order backlog, competence and technology base for further development of drilling equipment. For the last 110 years, Wirth has been successfully developing, manufacturing and selling drilling equipment and systems. The company provides cutting-edge technical s