DryShips Inc. Announces Full Exercise of Underwriters’ Option to Purchase Additional Shares

News Release DryShips Inc. April 14, 2012

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ATHENS, GREECE –April 13, 2012 - 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, today announced that the
underwriters of the previously
announced public offering of common shares of Ocean Rig UDW Inc.
that it owns have exercised in
full their option to purchase an additional 1,500,000 common
shares at a price to the public of $16.25
per share. With this exercise, the public offering totals
11,500,000 shares with total gross proceeds to
us as the selling shareholder, excluding underwriting discounts
and commissions, of $186,875,000.
Companies affiliated with our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
have agreed to purchase a total of
2,185,000 common shares from us at the public offering price.
The offering is expected to close on April 17, 2012.
Deutsche Bank Securities and Credit Suisse are acting as joint
book-running managers for the offering,
and Evercore Partners, Raymond James, Simmons & Company
International, ABN AMRO,
COMMERZBANK, Dahlman Rose & Company, DVB Capital Markets and
Nordea Markets are acting
as co-managers for the offering.
A registration statement relating to these securities was declared
effective by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission on April 11, 2012. This press release does not
constitute an offer to sell or the
solicitation of an offer to buy securities and shall not
constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any
jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is
unlawful. The offering is being made by means
of a prospectus. A final prospectus related to the offering was
filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission.
When available, copies of the final prospectus relating to the
offering may be obtained from the offices
of Deutsche Bank Securities at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.,
Attention: Prospectus Department, 100
Plaza One, Floor 2, Jersey City, NJ 07311 (or at 1-800-503-4611 or
by e-mail to
prospectusrequest@list.db.com) or Credit Suisse at Credit Suisse
Securities (USA) LLC, Attention:
Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010 (or
at 1-800-221-1037 or by email
to
newyork.prospectus@credit-suisse.com).</DIV></BODY></HTML>