Fredriksen’s Seadrill Continues Talks With Banks After New Loss

(Bloomberg) --

Billionaire John Fredriksen’s heavily indebted Seadrill Ltd. said it’s continuing talks with its banks as it reported a new loss amid a sluggish recovery in offshore drilling.

The rig operator is under pressure less than two years after completing a massive restructuring that left it with almost $6 billion in bank debt. The company had counted on a strong market recovery that has yet to fully materialize as repayments come closer.

Seadrill said the pace of the recovery has even slowed so far in 2020, as it reported a net loss of $199 million. The company added little detail beyond comments in November that it was going to be “proactive” in dealing with its debt, saying the dialog with banks is continuing.

“We took the initiative to engage in a dialog with our banks at an early stage to address capital structure challenges relative to current trading conditions,” Chief Executive Officer Anton Dibowitz said in a statement. “We have been engaged in a productive dialog with the lead banks throughout the fourth quarter and into 2020 and we expect to provide a fuller update at the appropriate time.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Mikael Holter in Oslo at mholter2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net, Stephen Treloar

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