Golden Ocean Warned by Nasdaq

Norwegian dry bulk owner Golden Ocean Group Limited has been notified by the Nasdaq Stock Market that the company is not in compliance with Nasdaq’s listing rules as the closing bid price of the company’s common stock was below the required minimum.

In particular, over the past 30 consecutive business days, from January 5, 2016 to February 17, 2016, the price was below the minimum USD 1.00 per share requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Golden Ocean has been given a grace period of 180 days to regain compliance, or until August 16, 2016.

The company said that it was considering its options, including a reverse stock split, in order to regain compliance within the grace period.

The warning from Nasdaq comes following the company’s private placement of new shares carried out to meet an equity condition in the company’s amended financing terms that would enable all its bank loans to be deferred.

As a result, GOGL raised gross proceeds of approximately USD 200 million, as was planned.

Specifically, under the deal with banks, starting from April 1, 2016, there will be no amortizations on the company’s bank loans until September 30, 2018, deferring a total of USD 165 million of amortization commitments.