CGG and Veritas DGC enter into definitive merger agreement
  by: OilOnline
  Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG) and Veritas DGC Inc. have entered into a definitive merger agreement whereby CGG will acquire Veritas in a part cash, part stock transaction.

The combination of CGG and Veritas will create a strong global pure play seismic company, offering a broad range of seismic services, and geophysical equipment, through Sercel, to the industry across all markets. The combined seismic services will operate the world’s leading seismic fleet with 20 vessels, including 14 high capacity 3D vessels, and land crews operating with equivalent capacity in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres. The multi-client services will benefit from two complementary, recent vintage, well positioned seismic data libraries. In data processing and imaging, CGG’s and Veritas’ respective positions will combine to create the industry reference.

With a combined workforce of approximately 7,000 staff operating worldwide, including Sercel, the future group will provide, through continued innovation, the industry benchmark for seismic technology and services to a broad base of customers including independent, international and national oil companies.

The Board of Directors of Veritas has unanimously approved the agreement and will recommend that Veritas stockholders adopt the transaction. Similarly, the Board of Directors of CGG has also unanimously approved the agreement and will recommend that CGG’s shareholders approve the issuance of new CGG stock to the Veritas shareholders. The transaction is expected to be completed around year end 2006, subject to receipt of shareholder and regulatory approvals, as well as the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.