Overview—Transocean Ltd. (together with its subsidiaries and predecessors, unless the context requires otherwise, “Transocean,” “we,” “us” or “our”) is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells. We specialize in technically demanding sectors of the offshore drilling business with a particular focus on deepwater and harsh environment drilling services. Our mobile offshore drilling fleet is considered one of the most versatile fleets in the world. We contract our drilling rigs, related equipment and work crews predominantly on a dayrate basis to drill oil and gas wells. At December 31, 2016, we owned or had partial ownership interests in and operated 56 mobile offshore drilling units, including 30 ultra‑deepwater floaters, seven harsh environment floaters, three deepwater floaters, six midwater floaters and 10 high‑specification jackups. At December 31, 2016, we also had four ultra‑deepwater drillships and five high‑specification jackups under construction or under contract to be constructed. See Note 10—Drilling Fleet.
Transocean Partners—On August 5, 2014, we completed an initial public offering to sell a noncontrolling interest in Transocean Partners LLC (“Transocean Partners”), a Marshall Islands limited liability company, which was formed on February 6, 2014, by Transocean Partners Holdings Limited, a Cayman Islands company and our wholly owned subsidiary, to own, operate and acquire modern, technologically advanced offshore drilling rigs. On December 9, 2016, Transocean Partners completed a merger with one of our subsidiaries as contemplated under the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”), dated July 31, 2016, and as amended on November 21, 2016. Following the completion of the merger, Transocean Partners became a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Transocean Ltd. Each Transocean Partners common unit that was issued and outstanding immediately prior to the closing, other than the units held by Transocean and its subsidiaries, was converted into the right to receive 1.20 of our shares. To complete the merger, we issued 23.8 million shares from conditional capital. See Note 14—Noncontrolling Interest.
Par value reduction—On October 29, 2015, at our extraordinary general meeting, our shareholders approved the reduction of the par value of each of our shares to CHF 0.10 from the original par value of CHF 15.00. The reduction of par value became effective as of January 7, 2016, upon registration in the commercial register. See Note 15—Shareholders’ Equity.