Transocean to Raise Money with Caledonia Offshore Offering
Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) (SIX: RIGN) announced that Transocean Inc., its wholly-owned subsidiary, intends to proceed with an unregistered offering of shares of Caledonia Offshore Drilling Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Transocean, in connection with an offering being made to eligible investors in Norway and to eligible institutional investors internationally. The proposed offering of shares, which represents a minority interest in Caledonia's share capital, is intended to raise between $125 million and $185 million, with the net proceeds received by Transocean.
Caledonia also proposes to make an unregistered offering of second lien senior secured bonds issued by Caledonia. The proposed offering of second lien senior secured bonds is intended to raise $350 million. The net proceeds received by Caledonia, together with the proceeds expected to be received by Caledonia under a first lien bank facility, will be used to finance the acquisition by Caledonia of certain drilling rigs located in the U.K. North Sea from subsidiaries of Transocean. Transocean, or one of its affiliates, intends to purchase all of the second lien senior secured bonds issued by Caledonia in the bond offering.
These offerings represent an incremental step in the execution of Transocean's asset strategy and provide the company with a flexible mechanism to maximize the value of its non-core rigs. The transactions are expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014, subject to market and other customary conditions.