Borr makes new financing arrangement for newbuild jack-up rig

Offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling has entered into a new financing arrangement for the newbuild jack-up rig Tivar.

The jack-up rig Tivar is under construction at a Keppel yard and, according to Borr’s update on Monday, it is scheduled to be delivered from the yard in July 2020. The rig is of a Keppel FELS Super B Class Bigfoot design.

Earlier this year, Keppel delivered the fifth of eleven jack-up rigs that Borr Drilling had ordered. The rig, named Heimdal, was the first to be delivered by Keppel in 2020.

Borr said on Monday that the existing $50 million bank delivery financing for the Tivar rig would be replaced with a new $100 million take out facility maturing in December 31, 2021.

As part of the agreement, the delivery of the jack-up rigs Vale and Var are conditional upon full repayment of the facility or can be carried out 180 days after an early repayment of the financing. According to Borr’s latest fleet status report, Vale and Var rigs are scheduled for delivery in October and December 2020, respectively.

The company’s total remaining newbuild capex is, as of today, $707 million, of which $620 million is now fully financed, and the new arrangement has reduced the unfunded delivery capex for 2020 by $85 million.

Borr said that the $100 million in financing and delivery date amendments would, together with the adjustments in the bank agreements achieved in December 2019, substantially improve the company’s liquidity position in 2020 and 2021.