Shelf Drilling raises fresh funds to refinance existing debt

Oslo-listed jackup rig pure-play Shelf Drilling has raised fresh capital via a private placement of new shares to repay debt as part of its refinancing.

The David Mullen-led company has secured NOK640m ($59.6m) for 19.4m shares priced at NOK33 apiece.

Condire Investors, one of Shelf Drilling’s five largest shareholders, subscribed for half the size of the private placement.

DNB Markets acted as sole global coordinator and joint bookrunner alongside Arctic Securities, Clarksons Securities, Fearnley Securities and SpareBank 1 Markets.

“The transaction gathered strong demand from a wide variety of quality investors and was significantly oversubscribed,” Clarksons Securities noted.

Dubai-headquartered owner and operator of 36 rigs had a contracted backlog of $2.8bn at the end of June representing a marketed utilisation of 96%.