Weatherford gets tenders for $167.07 million of 6.625% notes due 2011

By Angela McDaniels

Tacoma, Wash., Sept. 23 - Weatherford International Ltd. said that holders tendered $167,066,000 principal amount, or 47.74%, of the $350 million of outstanding 6.625% senior notes due Nov. 15, 2011 issued by subsidiary Weatherford International, Inc. ("Weatherford Delaware").

A tender offer for notes expired at 11:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 22, according to a company news release.

Holders will receive $1,065.75 for each $1,000 principal amount of notes plus accrued interest up to but excluding the settlement date, which was expected to be Sept. 23.

Pricing was determined at 2 p.m. ET on Sept. 22 based on the reference yield using the 1.75% U.S. Treasury note due Nov. 15, 2011 plus a fixed spread of 50 basis points. The reference yield was 0.339%.

In a second tender offer, Weatherford Delaware is offering to purchase its $600 million of outstanding 5.95% senior notes due June 15, 2012, and another subsidiary, Weatherford International Ltd. ("Weatherford Bermuda"), is offering to purchase $500 million of its outstanding 5.15% senior notes due March 15, 2013 and its $250 million of 4.95% senior notes due Oct. 15, 2013.

The principal amount of notes to be purchased in the second tender offer will be no more than $532,934,000, which is the difference between $700 million and the principal amount of notes purchased in the first offer.

The amounts of each series of notes that may be purchased in the second tender offer are prioritized in the order listed above and may be prorated.

The second tender offer will expire at 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 20.

The total consideration for each $1,000 principal amount of notes tendered and accepted in the second offer will be determined based on a fixed spread over the yield based on the bid-side price of a specified U.S. Treasury security, as calculated by the dealer managers at 2 p.m. ET on Oct. 20.

The fixed spread is 70 bps for the 5.95% notes, 100 bps for the 5.15% notes and 140 bps for the 4.95% notes.

The reference U.S. Treasury security is the 0.375% Treasury note due Aug. 31, 2012 for the 5.95% notes and the 0.75% Treasury note due Sept. 15, 2013 for the 5.15% notes and 4.95% notes.

The total consideration for these notes includes an early tender premium of $30 per $1,000 principal amount tendered by 5 p.m. ET on Sept. 29, the early tender date, and accepted for purchase.

Holders will also receive accrued interest up to but excluding the settlement date, which is expected to be Oct. 21.

Weatherford also said that Weatherford Bermuda's offerings of $800 million principal amount of 5.125% senior notes due 2020 and $600 million principal amount of 6.75% senior notes due 2040 have been completed. The proceeds will be used to fund the tender offers, to repay existing short-term debt and for general corporate purposes

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (866 627-0391), Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. (800 624-1808) and UBS Securities LLC (888 719-4210) are the joint lead dealer managers, and Global Bondholder Services Corp. (866 470-3700) is the depositary and information agent for the tender offers.

Weatherford is a Geneva-based oilfield services company.

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