Dubai: Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment, an Austrian company specialising in high-precision components for the global oilfield service industry, yesterday announced in a statement to the Vienna bourse that it has bought Dubai-based Drilling Systems International (DSI).

"We are taking over the world market leader in a niche of the oilfield service industry," Gernot Bauer, the company's head of investor relations, told Gulf News.

"It is fitting perfectly into our company portfolio," he said. "There are also significant synergies between DIS and our drilling engine subsidiary, especially in sales."

The takeover was signed on Monday but the closing of the deal is expected by October 1.

Bauer did not elaborate on the purchase price as both companies agreed not to disclose it.

Spreading wings

DSI was founded by a Canadian businessman and is based in Dubai to serve the large oil exploration companies in the region and beyond.

"The Middle East is the biggest market for DSI, and we will retain the headquarters in Dubai," said Bauer. DSI currently has revenues of $30 million (Dh110 million) and employs 50 staff.

The company is active globally, but is now eyeing an intensified expansion to the Far East, Bauer said. However, the Middle East remains the biggest market as of now, including Iran and Iraq.

DSI has a world market share of up to 80 per cent in the field of specialised equipment for ‘downhole circulation technology' for oil and gas wells, a niche Schoeller-Bleckmann currently does not cover with its product portfolio.

Schoeller-Bleckmann, founded 1924 in Austria, is the world market leader in its sector of high-precision oil exploration components.

Shares surge

Currently, the company employs 1,135 staff worldwide in 24 wholly owned subsidiaries in Europe, North America, the UAE, Singapore, Russia, Brazil and Vietnam.

The company is listed on the Vienna stock exchange and had sales revenue of 252 million euros (Dh1.18 billion) in 2009.

After the takeover announcement, the company's shares surged 2.39 per cent on the Vienna stock exchange.