Golden Ocean has announced further details of the private placement of new shares it is contemplating as part of its efforts to strengthen its balance sheet.
The company says it is mulling the issuance of the Norwegian krone (NOK) equivalent of $200m (currently NOK 1.72bn) in new shares on the Oslo Børs, which will be earmarked for certain Norwegian and international institutional investors.
The subscription price and number of shares to be issued will be determined during the accelerated bookbuilding period, which will start at the close of trading in Oslo on February 18 (16:00 CET) and end before the market opens on February 19 (08:00 CET).
A sum of NOK 1.72bn would issue around 291.5m shares at Golden Ocean’s current share price of NOK 5.90.
The new shares will initially be restricted and will trade on the Oslo Børs under the separate trading symbol ‘GOGL R’ from around February 23, after the placement’s prospectus has been approved by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority.
The issuance will have a minimum application and allocation amount of NOK equivalent of €100,000 (currently NOK 954,166), if Golden Ocean reserves the right to allocate lower amounts to “professional investors”, as qualified by the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Golden Ocean’s largest shareholder, Fredriksen’s Hemen Holding, currently controls around 43.1% of the company’s shares and will subscribe to and be allocated its pro rata share in the private placement, amounting to the NOK equivalent of approximately $86.2m (currently NOK 741.4m).
The company says its other major shareholders have also “indicated support” for subscribing to at least their pro rata share in the private placement.
The new shares issued in the placement will be restricted in the US and will be subject to a six-month holding period during which they cannot be traded in the country.
The shares will become freely tradeable on both the Oslo Børs and NASDAQ Global Select Market in the second half of 2016, and will be listed under Golden Ocean’s ordinary trading symbol ‘GOGL’.
Danske Bank, DNB Markets, Arctic Securities, Clarksons Platou Securities and Nordea Markets will manage the private placement.
Earlier today, Golden Ocean said it has amended all its bank loan facilities and further delayed newbuilding deliveries, which it said were “further proactive measures to strengthen its balance sheet”.
