HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 2004--Hanover Compressor
Company (NYSE:HC), a global market leader in full service natural gas
compression and a leading provider of service, fabrication and
equipment for oil and natural gas processing and transportation
applications, announced today that it has reached an agreement in
principle to sell the compression rental assets of its Canadian
subsidiary, Hanover Canada Corporation, to Universal Compression
Canada, a subsidiary of Universal Compression Holdings, Inc., for
approximately $57 million. This transaction, which has been approved
by the Board of Directors of both Hanover and Universal Compression,
is expected to be completed by November 1, 2004.
Additionally, Hanover has agreed to sell its ownership interest in
Collicutt Energy Services Ltd.("CES") for approximately $2.6 million
to an entity owned by Steven Collicutt. Hanover owns approximately 2.6
million shares in CES and this transaction is anticipated to close
prior to year-end 2004.
"Canada has not been a targeted growth market for Hanover," stated
John Jackson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hanover. "With
this sale, we will have the opportunity to accelerate our stated
objectives for debt paydown and to reallocate resources and capital to
markets where we see greater growth opportunity for the company."
About Hanover Compressor
Hanover Compressor Company (www.hanover-co.com) is a global market
leader in full service natural gas compression and a leading provider
of service, fabrication and equipment for oil and natural gas
processing and transportation applications. Hanover sells and rents
this equipment and provides complete operation and maintenance
services, including run-time guarantees for both customer-owned
equipment and its fleet of rental equipment. Founded in 1990 and a
public company since 1997, Hanover's customers include both major and
independent oil and gas producers and distributors as well as national
oil and gas companies.
Certain matters discussed in this document are "forward-looking
statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbors established by
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking
statements can generally be identified as such because of the context
of the statement or because the statement includes words such as
"believes," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates," or words of similar
import. Similarly, statements that describe Hanover's future plans,
objectives or goals or future revenues or other financial measures are
also forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are
subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results
to differ materially from those anticipated as of the date the
statements were made. These risks and uncertainties include, but are
not limited to: our inability to renew our short-term leases of
equipment with our customers so as to fully recoup our cost of the
equipment; prolonged substantial reduction in oil and gas prices,
which could cause a decline in the demand for our compression and oil
and natural gas production equipment; reduced profit margins or the
loss of market share resulting from competition or the introduction of
competing technologies by other companies; legislative changes or
changes in economic or political conditions in the countries in which
we do business; the inherent risks associated with our operations,
such a equipment defects, malfunctions and failures and natural
disasters; governmental safety, health, environmental and other
regulations, which could require us to make significant expenditures;
our inability to implement certain business objectives such as
integrating acquired businesses, implementing our new enterprise
resource planning systems, generating sufficient cash, accessing
capital markets, refinancing existing or incurring additional
indebtedness to fund our business, and executing our exit and sale
strategy with respect to assets classified on our balance sheet as
discontinued operations and held for sale; our inability to comply
with covenants in our debt agreements and the decreased financial
flexibility associated with our substantial debt. A discussion of
these and other factors is included in the Company's periodic reports
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Hanover Compressor Company
Lee Beckelman, 281-447-8787 (Investor Relations)
SOURCE: Hanover Compressor Company