Eurasia Drilling Co. Ltd. (EDC) said it has received an offer for a potential merger from management and shareholders that would take the company private.

In a news release Oct. 8, the drilling services company said the potential investors offer US$10 per share. The investors were not identified.

In response to the offer, the board formed a special committee comprised of the Lord Clanwilliam, who serves as chairman; Dr. Alexander Shokhin and Dr. Igor Belikov to negotiate on behalf of the board with assistance from advisers. All three are independent non-executive directors of the company, and none are affiliated with the offering company and its participants or affiliates, the release said.

The committee will give a recommendation on the offer to the board.

The offer comes after a proposed merger with Schlumberger collapsed.

“The board is focused on preserving shareholder value following the failure of the Schlumberger transaction which would have been extremely beneficial to shareholders,” Clanwilliams said in the news release. “The cancellation of this transaction is particularly unfortunate given all the challenges EDC is now facing.”

EDC maintained its long-term fundamentals are still robust.

But current performance is significantly impacted by challenging macroeconomics, acceleration in ruble depreciation, continued geopolitical risks, upstream capex cuts by the Russian oil majors on the back of oil price pressure, compounded by changes in tax regulations for the oil sector, weak pricing for drilling, poor forward visibility on offshore activity and uncertainty in the services market stemming from sanctions, EDC said in the release.

Given these challenges, the company’s management wants to go private because managing the company requires maximum flexibility and the change has material financial benefit, the release said.

The company also said it has appointed three directors to fill current vacancies on the board. The directors are Messrs Murat Sampiev, Alexander Bogachev and Taleh Aleskerov.