Ship Finance Sells Drillship to Seadrill
Ship Finance International Limited announced that Seadrill Limited has exercised a purchase option for an ultra-deepwater drilling unit.
Ship Finance acquired the West Polaris in 2008 and chartered it to a subsidiary of Seadrill on a long-term bareboat charter where Seadrill was granted certain purchase options, first time in 2012. The purchase option price is $456 million and the transaction will be effected as a sale of the shares in the asset-owning subsidiary.
Ship Finance will receive approximately $108 million in net cash proceeds from the sale, but does not expect a material book impact from the transaction. The company said it expects to reinvest cash proceeds in new assets, and the sale of West Polaris is not expected to impact the dividend capacity going forward.
Following this transaction, Ship Finance will have two ultra-deepwater drilling rigs on charter to Seadrill, and next purchase options will be in November 2016 and February 2017 for the West Hercules and the West Taurus, respectively.
