Conference Call Scheduled for August 29, 9:00 a.m. Central Time
IRVING, Texas, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CARBO Ceramics Inc.
(NYSE: CRR) has entered into a definitive agreement with Halliburton
(NYSE: HAL) to sell a portion of the assets of its wholly-owned subsidiary,
Pinnacle Technologies, for $137 million. The Company will sell its Fracture
and Reservoir Diagnostics business, including the Pinnacle Technologies, Inc.
name and related trademarks to Halliburton but will retain the
industry-leading hydraulic fracturing simulation software FracProPT, the
hydraulic fracturing design, engineering and consulting business and Applied
Geomechanics, a leader in tiltmeter technology for geotechnical applications.
In addition, the Company's Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of
up to two million shares of its common stock. As of August 28, 2008 the
Company had 24.6 million shares outstanding.
Gary Kolstad, President and CEO of CARBO Ceramics, commented on the
transaction, stating, 'The fracture and reservoir diagnostics business has
been a high growth business for us, and we believe the future potential of
this business is reflected in the value we received for these assets. In
addition to the sale of assets, we have executed a multi-year proppant supply
agreement with Halliburton that is intended to support our plans to continue
to expand the production and use of our superior quality ceramic proppant
worldwide. This transaction monetizes the value of a high growth business we
acquired a little over six years ago and eliminates a conflict with our valued
ceramic proppant customers. Equally important, we are retaining the highly
respected software and consulting businesses. These two businesses are highly
complementary to the ceramic proppant business, share the same client base and
taken together, form an important piece of the global fracturing marketplace.
'We recently announced a 21 percent increase in our quarterly dividend,
the approval of a $70 million capacity expansion at our facility in Toomsboro,
Georgia and now the authorization to repurchase up to 2.0 million shares of
the Company's common stock. These actions clearly demonstrate our confidence
in our ability to grow our business and generate cash.'
The final sales price of the assets being sold is subject to adjustment
for changes in working capital and the closing of the transaction is subject
to approval under The Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and
other customary closing conditions.
