Brazil’s competition authority has cleared the merger of Saipem and Subsea 7, the two offshore engineering contractors combining to form Saipem7, subject to the sale of a single specialised vessel. The tribunal of the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica, known as CADE, approved the combination on November 4 under a merger control agreement, Saipem and Subsea 7 each announced.
The remedy is the Seven Borealis, a pipelay and heavy lift vessel in Subsea 7’s fleet capable of working in deepwater and ultra deepwater fields. The companies committed to divest it to answer the tribunal’s concern that the merger would remove head to head competition between the two main subsea engineering, procurement, construction and installation contractors in Brazil, a market centred on Petrobras and the pre salt fields. The commitment includes provisions to keep projects already in the backlog running, and both companies said the disposal is not expected to affect the strategic rationale of the merger or the synergies previously announced, put at about 300 million euros a year in the trade reporting of the deal.
Brazil was not a routine filing. CADE’s superintendence had cleared the combination unconditionally at an earlier stage, and the tribunal reopened its review in July after accepting appeals from Petrobras and the Brazilian association of exploration and production companies. The conditional approval therefore resolves the one jurisdiction where the customer itself had intervened against the deal.
The combination itself was agreed in a binding merger agreement in July 2025, after an initial agreement earlier that year, and approved by both companies’ shareholders. On the figures announced at signing, the combined group will have annual revenue of about 21 billion euros and a backlog of about 43 billion euros, making it the dominant contractor in subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines work.
Closing is not yet in hand. The European Commission opened an in depth investigation in July and later suspended its review pending further information, with no current decision deadline, and Australia’s competition authority is still assessing the deal. Under the merger terms, all outstanding conditions must be met or waived by December 31, 2026.