HAMILTON, Norway, Feb. 22, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- SeaDrill Limited ("SeaDrill") has on 21 February 2006 completed a private placement of a total of 20 million new shares to a subscription price of NOK 70.75 per share. The private placement was over-subscribed. Gross proceeds from the equity issue amounted to NOK 1.4 billion.
The purpose of the share issue was to partly fund the acquisition of Mosvold Drilling Ltd., as announced on Monday 20 February 2006, and for general corporate purposes.
The issued share capital of SeaDrill after the private placement will be USD 648,266,432, equalling 324,133,216 shares of USD 2 par value.
Hemen Holding Limited, a company indirectly controlled by John Fredriksen, was allocated a total of 2,389,000 shares in the Private Placement, and will, subsequent to the delivery of shares, hold a total of 126,830,916 shares constituting 39.14% of the issued share capital.
Allocation letters will be sent out today. Payment date is set to Monday 27 February 2006. The subscribers will be delivered existing and unencumbered shares in the Company that are already listed on Oslo Stock Exchange pursuant to a Stock Lending agreement entered into between the Managers and Hemen Holding Limited.
The shares delivered to the subscribers will be tradable from the date they are delivered.
The share issue was lead managed by Carnegie ASA and Pareto Securities ASA. Co- managers were DnB NOR Markets and Fearnley Fonds ASA.