Seadrill Underwrites NADL Private Placement
The board of directors of North Atlantic Drilling Ltd. — which Bermuda’s Seadrill has a 75 percent ownership stake in — has retained the services of RS Platou Markets AS, Arctic Securities, DNB Markets, part of DNB Bank ASA, Nordea Markets part of Nordea Bank Norge ASA, Pareto Securities AS and SEB Enskilda to effect a contemplated private placement of new shares directed towards Norwegian and international institutional investors.
The anticipated gross proceeds of the contemplated private placement will be $300 million through an issue of 150,000,000 new ordinary shares. The order price has been set to $2.00 per share by the board of directors.
The private placement is fully underwritten by Bermuda-based Seadrill Limited.
Seadrill Limited will subscribe for and be allocated the amount of approximately $150 million. The minimum order in the private placement has been set to the US dollar equivalent of EUR 50,000.
North Atlantic Drilling Ltd. rig “West Phoenix”
The gross proceeds of the private placement will be used to finance (i) the first yard instalment for a harsh environment Semi-submersible newbuild, (ii) paydown on intra-company debt to Seadrill Limited and (iii) general corporate purposes.
In connection with the private placement Seadrill has provided a new $200 million revolving credit facility. Seadrill has also undertaken to cover any liability of North Atlantic Drilling Ltd. [NADL] in excess of $63 million related to the ongoing tax case with the Norwegian Tax Authorites.
The application period commences today [Mar. 27] at 17:30 Central European Time [CET] and close on 28 March 2012 at 08:30 CET. The board of directors of NADL may, however, at any time resolve to close early or extend the application period at its own discretion.
However, the application period will under no circumstances close prior to 20:00 [CET] on 27 March 2012.
Alf C Thorkildsen, Chief Executive Officer in North Atlantic Management AS and Chairman of North Atlantic Drilling Ltd. says in a comment, “NADL was established in February last year with a clear ambition of building the leading harsh environment offshore drilling company.
“Since its incorporation, the underlying market for drilling services in such areas has shown a tremendous further development creating opportunities for additional growth. Adding a harsh environment semi-submersible newbuild, we are able to continue delivering our growth strategy and to utilize a unique opportunity to generate solid returns for our shareholders.
“We believe the market for modern advanced rigs will continue to develop favorably and offer attractive contracting opportunities. The strengthening of our capital base is supportive of such opportunities delivering further growth.”
SeaDrill Limited is a Bermuda-based company active in the oil and gas industry.
The company operates a fleet of 60 units comprising drillships, jack-up rigs, semi-submersible rigs and tender rigs for operations in shallow to ultra-deepwater areas.
The company’s customers are national, international and independent oil companies.
