DryShips Announces Signing of Restructuring of $1.1 Billion Facility and Exercise of 2 Options to Construct UDW Drillships by Ocean Rig UDW Inc.

News Release DryShips Inc. April 29, 2011

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ATHENS, GREECE – April 29, 2011
- DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) (the “Company” or
“DryShips”), a global provider of marine
transportation services for drybulk and petroleum
cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced
the signing, by its majority-owned
subsidiary Ocean Rig UDW Inc. (“Ocean Rig”), of the
previously announced restructuring of its
$1.1 billion Secured Term Loan Facility led by Deutsche Bank. The
main terms of the
restructuring are as follows:
- The maximum amount permitted to be drawn is reduced from $562.5
million to $495
million under each facility
- In addition to the Dryships Guarantee, Ocean Rig UDW Inc., will
provide an
unlimited recourse guarantee and will be subject to certain
financial covenants that
will apply quarterly
- Full draw downs (up to a total of $495 million) will be
permitted for the Ocean Rig
Poseidon based upon the employment of the drillship under its
drilling contract with
Petrobras, and cash collateral deposited for this vessel will be
released
- For the Ocean Rig Mykonos, the Company will have up to one month
prior to
delivery (scheduled for September 2011) to execute an acceptable
drilling
contract in order to draw down the loan
Ocean Rig exercised two newbuilding options to construct Ultra
Deepwater Drillships at
Samsung Heavy Industries. Earlier deliveries than previously
scheduled were secured for July
and October 2013. The specification of both the drillships has
been further upgraded to 7th
generation from the already high specification of the existing
series of four, including:
o capability to drill in 12,000 feet of water
depth
o a seven ram BOP
o a dual mud system
o enhanced riser handling and storage
system
o ballast water treatment system.
George Economou, Chairman and CEO
commented:
“Today marks the start of a new phase for Ocean Rig UDW. For the
last two years we have been
working towards this landmark where the original newbuilding
program is now fully funded from
the proceeds of the Nordea loan and the restructured facility for
the Ocean Rig Poseidon. In
addition we have successfully concluded a $500 million unsecured
bond and still have the Ocean
Rig Mykonos facility that can be drawn subject to a suitable
charter. The demand for ultra
deepwater drilling services is strong and we see substantial
growth in the near term from across
the globe. We are confident of substantially increasing our
backlog in the near future. To service
this growing demand we have exercised the first two of the
newbuilding options we had secured
in November last year. The significantly enhanced specification
and early delivery positions
should prove to be attractive to our customers.
Ocean Rig is positioned as the largest single pure play in the
ultra deepwater drilling space and
continues to deliver on its strategy to build a credible and
competitive pure play in this space. We
are working towards listing the Company on an international
exchange and expect to have this
done in the next couple of months.”</DIV></BODY></HTML>