Rowan Announces Proposed Change in Corporate Structure

Rowan Companies, Inc. RDC today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved a plan to change the Company's corporate structure. The proposed plan is designed to enhance shareholder value by improving Rowan's long-term competitive position as a global contract driller. Under the proposed plan, the Company's legal domicile would change from Delaware to the United Kingdom, where the Company already has substantial and growing operations. The offshore drilling industry is a global business and Rowan has been evolving into a much more geographically diversified company. This change aligns the Company's structure with its significant shift in strategic focus toward key global markets over the past decade, as well as the central role of its U.K. base to Rowan's management and oversight of its global operations. The Company estimates approximately 81 percent of revenue will be derived from non-U.S. operations in 2012, compared with just ten percent in 2004.