Keppel Corp Increases Stakes in O&M

Keppel Corporation Limited increased its stake in Norway's Offshore & Marine ASA to 61.87%. The deal was executed through Keppel Corp's wholly owned subsidiary FELS Offshore, which bought a total of 1,648,000 O&M shares from Norestraen Industrier AS and Norestraen Investering AS for a total cash consideration of $448,000. The book value of the O&M shares was approximately $297,913 as at Dec. 31, 2005, but the deal took into account the future business prospects of O&M and was done on a willing buyer and willing seller basis. Through the acquisition, FELS' shareholding in O&M will increase to 6,960,500 shares - representing 61.87% of the issued share capital - from 5,312,500 shares, which represented 47.22% of the issued share capital. The transaction is not expected to have any material impact on its earnings per share and net tangible assets for the current financial year.

(Source: Yahoo!)