Fairfax I.S. PLC is advising EMER International Group Limited (“EMER”), a Hong Kong listed oil and gas services company, on its recommended £11.4m cash offer for Global Marine Energy PLC (“Global Marine”). This is one of the first takeovers of a UK listed company by a Hong Kong listed counterpart and has involved advisory work covering two regulatory regimes. In addition, EMER has had to compete with a third party offering an alternative proposal and Fairfax has assisted in putting in place an emergency debt facility for Global Marine in order for the company to continue trading throughout the offer period. The offer has been recommended by the board of Global Marine and Global Marine’s largest shareholder, Gartmore Investment Management, has undertaken to accept in respect of its 29% holding. The offer is subject to a number of conditions including regulatory approval and the approval of EMER’s shareholders.

EMER is listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is a global product and service provider to the oil and gas drilling industry both onshore and offshore. EMER is a holding company of several subsidiaries located in the US and in China. Through these subsidiaries, EMER engineers, develops, manufactures and supplies drilling related equipment and products to customers worldwide. EMER had sales of approximately RMB 216 million for the year ended 31 December 2006 (£14 million), net profit of RMB 34 million (£2.2 million) and a market capitalisation as of 18 October 2007 of approximately RMB 1.8 billion (£120 million).