Norway: North Atlantic Drilling Ltd Finalises Share Allocation

 

Reference is made to the press release on February 16, 2011 regarding the close of the Private Placement in North Atlantic Drilling Ltd.

(“NADL” or the “Company”). The Private Placement was closed on February 16, 2011 at 12:00. However, due to significant over-subscription, the NADL share allocation was not finalized before yesterday. As the book was more than 20 times covered, the Company has emphasized reported Seadrill Limited shareholders as the prime allocation criteria. The Company has further tried to arrange for a shareholder structure which can qualify for an immediate stock exchange listing of the Company. The Company will, based on the allocation, have approximately 1,200 shareholders.

Payment and delivery of the shares has been set to Thursday February 24, 2011. The shares will start trading on N-OTC as of Thursday February 24, 2011 under ticker NADL this week.

About North Atlantic Drilling Ltd

The Board of Directors of Seadrill Limited (“Seadrill”) have decided to create a new drilling company focusing entirely on harsh environment operations. To achieve that Seadrill will spin off its operations in the North Atlantic Basin into a new subsidiary, the North Atlantic Drilling Limited (“NADL” or the “Company”), by transferring a fleet of six existing harsh environment units to NADL. The fleet will consist of the following drilling units: West Phoenix, West Venture, West Alpha, West Navigator, West Epsilon and West Elara. In addition, Seadrill is in final stages of negotiating a new building contract for a 7th unit, which will also become a part of NADL.

The objective is to develop an unrivalled owner and operator of arctic and harsh environment drilling units. NADL will have some 1,000 employees working in an organization which have nearly 40 years of experience. This will put the Company in a unique position to serve the oil companies safely and effectively in developing new and even more challenging reservoirs.

[mappress]

Source:Seadrill, February  21, 2011;