Wednesday, March 18, 2015

If You Owe Enough, You Own the Bank: Drilling Rig Edition (SDRL)

From Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance:

Oil Rig Squeeze Puts DNB on Alert to Help Billionaire Fredriksen
DNB ASA is willing to help billionaire John Fredriksen’s Seadrill Ltd. and other loan clients that are being squeezed by a 40 percent plunge in rental rates on oil rigs.

Norway’s biggest bank is prepared to defer loan-repayment installments for drillers such as Seadrill. The bank is looking specifically at helping companies with the most advanced rigs, said Harald Serck-Hanssen, executive vice president for Large Corporates and International, at the Oslo-based lender. 

“We see higher risk in the rig market going forward,” he said in a March 12 interview in the Norwegian capital. “We can grant installment postponements for a period, worst case.”...MORE