EURONAV TO RAISE USD 125 MILLION

On 4 September 2009, Euronav NV (‘Euronav’) priced its offering (the ‘Offering’) of USD 125 million fixed rate senior unsecured convertible bonds, due 2015 (the ‘Bonds’).
The Bonds will be issued at 100 per cent of their principal amount and will bear interest at a rate of 6.5 per cent per annum, payable semi-annually in arrear. The initial conversion price is EUR 16.28375 (or USD 23.16852 at EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.4228) per share and is set at a premium of 25 per cent to the volume weighted average price of Euronav's ordinary shares on Euronext Brussels on 3 September 2009. If all of the Bonds were to be converted into new ordinary shares at the initial conversion price, 5,395,256 new ordinary shares would be issued, representing 9.44 % of Euronav’s share capital on a fully diluted basis.
The net proceeds from the issue of the Bonds will be used by Euronav to diversify its funding sources, strengthen its balance sheet liquidity, general corporate and working capital purposes as well as to fund potential acquisitions that may arise in the future.
The Bonds are expected to be convertible between 4 November 2009 and 24 January 2015 into ordinary shares of Euronav at the conversion price applicable at such conversion date and in accordance with the conditions to be set out in a trust deed in relation to the Bonds. Unless previously redeemed, converted or purchased and cancelled, the Bonds will be redeemed in cash on 31 January 2015 at 100 per cent of their principal amount.
The Bonds were placed with institutional investors (outside the United States) by HSBC Bank plc, acting as lead, ING Belgium SA/NV acting as co-manager and Clarkson Investment Services Limited acting as placing agent.
Payment for and issue of the Bonds is expected to be on or about 24 September 2009. On or before such time an offering circular will be made available by Euronav.
Application is intended to be made for the admission of the Bonds to the official list of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and for the admission of the Bonds to trading on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Euro MTF Market.

Euronav is an integrated owner, operator and manager able to provide complete shipping services in addition to the carriage of crude oil on its fleet of modern large tankers. The crude oil sea-borne transportation market is cyclical and highly volatile requiring flexible and proactive management of assets in terms of fleet composition and employment. Euronav operates its fleet on both the spot and the period market. Most of Euronav VLCCs as well as all VPLUS are operated in the Tankers International pool. Euronav operates at the moment all of its Suezmaxes and Aframaxes under period charter contracts with oil majors, leading refiners and oil traders such as BP, Glencore, Petrobras, Sun Oil, Total Valero and Vitol. Fleet management is conducted by three wholly owned subsidiaries: Euronav Ship Management SAS and Euronav SAS, both French companies with headquarters in Nantes (France) and with a major branch office in Antwerp and Euronav Ship Management (Hellas) Ltd with its head office in Piraeus, Greece. The skills of its directly employed seagoing officers, shore-based Captains and Engineers give Euronav a competitive edge in high quality design, maintenance and operation. Euronav vessels fly Belgian, Greek and French flag. The use of national flag together with operational and maintenance standards in terms of age, appearance and performance which are higher than industry norms enables Euronav to employ part of its fleet on long-term charter with fixed earnings to secure financial visibility.

IMPRESS COMMUNICATIONS LTD
DMR House
8-10 Cleave Avenue,
Farnborough, Orpington
Kent BR6 7DR
UNITED KINGDOM

Tel: +44 (0) 1689 860660
Fax: +44 (0) 1689 818285
e-mail: impcomms@yahoo.co.uk

This release was published on openPR.