Anchor Drilling Fluids USA, Inc., the largest independent provider of drilling fluids and fluid-handling services for U.S. onshore oil and gas drilling, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Advantage Drilling Fluids LLC. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Advantage, based in Longmont, Colorado, is a leading provider of drilling and completion fluid services to oil and natural gas drillers in the Piceance Basin in Colorado and the Uintah Basin in Utah, which are among the most active natural gas drilling basins in the Rocky Mountains. Like Anchor, Advantage focuses on complex, unconventional drilling environments, which require specialized drilling fluid products and engineering services.
Advantage will retain its name and continue to be led by Jack Cantley, the company’s founder. Cantley and other Advantage employees will roll a significant portion of their proceeds into Anchor’s equity.
Bob West, the chief executive officer of Anchor, said, “The Rocky Mountain region has become an important long-term area for the U.S. domestic gas supply and is an area in which both Anchor and Advantage currently operate. The great benefit of this transaction is that Anchor’s and Advantage’s businesses in this region complement each other perfectly. They do not compete.”
Cantley said the combination “gives Advantage an even greater ability to grow and improve the breadth and quality of its services to customers throughout the Rockies.”
Anchor is a portfolio company of Castle Harlan, Inc., the New York private equity investment firm, which acquired Anchor last April.
Castle Harlan, founded in 1987, invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle-market companies in North America, Europe and, together with CHAMP Private Equity, Australasia. Since inception, Castle Harlan has invested in companies representing over $9 billion in enterprise value.
Castle Harlan’s current portfolio companies, which employ more than 42,000 people, include United Malt Holdings, one of the world’s largest producers of malt for the brewing and distilling industries; Ames True Temper, a leading manufacturer of lawn and garden tools and accessories; and Baker & Taylor, the leading global distributor of books and entertainment products to libraries and retailers.