Happydays,Warren Strage sold Strange Drilling to Brandrill in...

Happydays,

Warren Strage sold Strange Drilling to Brandrill in 2007 for around $28M. When he did, I believe he sold everything except the manufacturing arm (i.e. Globe Drill). Before Coretrack bought Globe Drill, I'm guessing they still manufactured/maintained rigs for the Strange Drilling business. Whether they still do, I don't know, but I doubt it.

Ausdrill (ASL) merged/took over Brandrill in 2009 and Ausdrill sold the Strange Drilling business in a management buyout for around $15M in Feb 2010. JSW actually has an office in Bibra Lake about 1km away from the new Coretrack headquarters. To quote the 2010 Ausdrill Annual Report:

"On 28 February 2010 the Group sold its Strange Drilling business and the division disposed of is reported in this
financial report as a discontinued operation. This business, whilst engaged in similar activities, utilised a very different fleet of equipment which was not compatible with the Groups existing operations."

If you look at the JSW homepage it says "JSW Australia is owned and managed by a group of industry experienced shareholders with over 250 years of combined drilling experience, including Strange Drilling founding employee". Originally I had thought that might be Warren, especially since he sold Globe Drill to Coretrack in Jan 2010, about 1 month before JSW bought the Strange Drilling business from Ausdrill. But I don't believe Warren is the founding employee referred to or that he was involved in that buyout.

Cheers,
BWZ