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Norse Energy announces refinancing plans for three series of bonds
By Angela McDaniels
Tacoma, Wash., Feb. 28 - Norse Energy Corp ASA has reached a refinancing agreement with the holders of a majority of its $75 million of 8½%/13½% callable bonds due 2013, NOK 27 million of 13½% callable bonds due 2014 and $17.8 million of 12.707%/13½% callable bonds due 2014, according to a company news release.
In total, $56 million of the bonds remain outstanding.
The bondholders will vote on the proposed refinancing at meetings on March 9.
The company will issue $21 million to $40 million of new three-year callable convertible bonds. The bondholders will receive $21 million of the new convertibles in exchange for an equal amount of the existing bonds.
The convertibles will carry a 5% coupon, have a conversion price of NOK 0.37 per share and be secured by the shares in subsidiary Norse Energy Holding Inc.
The remaining outstanding bonds, $35 million in all, will be prepaid at par by June. The company said it will present the bondholders with a plan to source the $35 million by March 31. Funding options could include asset sales, the sale of convertible bonds to new investors, issuance of equity, other merger and acquisition activity and/or joint ventures.
The bondholders have agreed to waive financial covenants in the remedy period, which ends in June, and to give any waivers required to implement and finance the restructuring proposal.
9½%/11½% bonds
Meanwhile, the company will call its $3.74 million of outstanding 9½%/11½% bonds due July 2012 and replace them with $3.74 million of new floating-rate bonds due 2013.
The coupon of the new bonds will be Libor plus 50 basis points.
Existing bondholders have presubscribed for the new bonds. They will receive one-year warrants to subscribe for 7.5 million shares at price of NOK 0.28 per share.
Pareto Securities AS and Carnegie ASA have acted as advisers to the company in the connection with the refinancing.
Norse Energy is an oil and gas exploration and production company based in Oslo.
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