Volstad asks to extend NOK 600 million floaters by one year to 2017

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, June 17 – Volstad Subsea AS said it is looking to extend the bulk of its NOK 600 million senior secured floating-rate bonds due July 5, 2016 by one year in response to the difficulty of refinancing during the industry downturn.

As part of the proposal, the company would redeem NOK 100 million of the bonds at par on the original maturity date.

The company has set a bondholders meeting for July 1 in Oslo.

Volstad has been in talks with bondholders because it has found refinancing the bonds to be “challenging” during the oil slump, which has hurt the offshore support vessel industry, according to a notice.

The company also is proposing to add a quarterly cash sweep, in which all free cash above NOK 15 million in the debt service account would be used to redeem the bonds at par plus accrued interest.

The bonds also will be callable at par.

Other key terms include an option for bondholders to acquire 100% of the shares capital of the company for a total consideration of NOK 1 if the bonds are not repaid in full on the new maturity date and removal of the minimum free liquidity and asset coverage ratio covenants.

The company also is seeking to obtain a new first-lien bank loan.

In order to form a quorum, at least half of the bonds must be represented at the meeting. In order to approve the resolution, the holders of more than two-thirds of the bonds represented at the meeting must vote in its favor.

ABG Sundal Collier ASA and SpareBank 1 Markets AS are the financial advisers.

Volstad is a Alesund, Norway-based company that owns and manages offshore vessels.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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