HAMILTON, Norway, April 3, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- SeaDrill Limited ("SeaDrill") has on 2 April 2006 completed a private placement of a total of 39 million new shares to a subscription price of NOK 90 per share. The private placement was significantly over-subscribed. Gross proceeds from the equity issue amounted to NOK 3.5 billion.
The purpose of the share issue was to fund the acquisition of shares in Smedvig ASA as a consequence of the Mandatory Offer.
The issued share capital of SeaDrill after the private placement will be USD 726,266,432, equalling 363,133,216 shares of USD 2 par value.
Hemen Holding Limited, a company indirectly controlled by John Fredriksen, had fully guaranteed the equity issue and was allocated a total of 4,000,000 shares in the Private Placement, and will, subsequent to the delivery of shares, hold a total of 130,830,916 shares constituting 36.0% of the issued share capital.
Allocation letters will be sent out today. Payment date is set to Wednesday 5 April 2006. The majority of 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 majority of the shares delivered to the subscribers will be tradable from the date they are delivered. However, certain subscribers have agreed to be delivered shares that are not tradable prior to the acceptance of the prospectus by Oslo Stock Exchange.
The share issue was lead managed by Carnegie ASA and Pareto Securities ASA. SEB Enskilda was co-manager.