Challenger Limited announces the closing of a major international partnership deal

Mr. Hassan Tatanaki, Chairman of Challenger Limited, declared that " In view of the vast opportunities of high growth in the MENA region, we along with our partners have decided to go into partnership with one of the best-regarded companies in the oil drilling industry; namely Bronco Drilling Company. This partnership will energize and undoubtedly increase our capacity to expand Challenger activities in both scope and scale. This was based on our full confidence and faith in the investment model and general direction". Mr. Tatanaki said that "This transaction shows that the growing cooperation amongst Libya, the U.S., and the Middle East, is creating an attractive investment environment for U.S. and International companies".

Mr. Tatanaki went on to say "We are very happy that Challenger has attracted foreign investments into Libya, especially from a prominent company in the oil industry like Bronco. We are very proud of this partnership and strongly believe that it will be the starting point for many other foreign investments to be made in the services sector in Libya".

In conjunction with these partnership transactions, it was agreed that Challenger will acquire four additional land drilling rigs and ancillary equipment from Bronco to be paid for in installments. Challenger and Bronco also agreed to enter into a number of services and management agreements under which Challenger will engage Bronco to provide broad-based technical and managerial support services bringing more International expertise to the already International name of Challenger Limited.

Frank Harrison, Chief Executive Officer of Bronco stated, "We have been diligently working on expanding the company internationally and are very pleased to have reached this agreement with Challenger. This transaction allows us to deploy a portion of our fleet abroad that is not ideally suited for the unconventional drilling which dominates activity in the United States and also provides the company greater exposure to oil. The MENA area has become a region of tremendous growth and opportunity and we are excited about participating in its potential. We are confident that the combination of Bronco and Challenger will create a formidable contractor in the MENA market and beyond." read more