HAMILTON, Bermuda, April 17, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Seadrill has on April 16, 2007 completed a private placement of a total of 9 million new shares to a subscription price of NOK101.00 per share. Gross proceeds from the equity issue amounted to NOK909 million (equivalent to approx. US$150 million).
The purpose of the share issue is to strengthen the liquidity as well as to part finance the mandatory Eastern Drilling bid and further possible investments in deepwater or tender rig assets. The total number of shares outstanding after the issue will be 392,133,216.
The shares have been successfully placed with a group of international investors who all have large current interest in Seadrill and support the long term strategy of building Seadrill into the world's premium quality rig operator.
Hemen Holding Limited, a company indirectly controlled by Seadrill's chairman John Fredriksen, underwrote the whole issue and was allocated a total of 3 million shares. No compensation was received for the underwriting. Hemen Holding Limited will after this control a total of 134,547,583 shares constituting 34.3 percent of the issued share capital.
The share issue was lead managed by Carnegie ASA and Pareto Securities ASA with Fearnley Fonds as co-lead.
Seadrill Limited April 17, 2007 Hamilton, Bermuda