Norse Energy subsidiary buys back $8 million bonds at discount to par

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, Aug. 23 - Norse Energy Corp. ASA said its U.S. subsidiary Norse Energy Holdings, Inc. purchased $8 million nominal value of the company's NEC 02 bonds at a discount in the open market.

The company will record a gain of about $2.4 million on the early extinguishment of debt after the recognition of unamortized bond issuance expense related to the NEC K warrants, according to a press release.

"The reduction in debt and gain from the transactions bolsters the company's equity ratio in the short term and allows the company time to continue pursing ongoing asset sales processes and other alternatives to strengthen the balance sheet in the longer term," Mark Dice, chief executive officer, said in the release.

The company said it is continuing discussions with its bondholders regarding an equity covenant waiver in its bond agreements and the conversion of some or all of its bonds into new equity.

The loan agreements for NEC 03, NEC 04 and NEC 05 bonds include covenants that require maintaining equity of at least $36 million and an equity to capital employed ratio of at least 30%.

Norse Energy is an oil and gas exploration and production company based in Oslo.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.