Hidden Benefit of DryShips Getting Waivers (DRYS)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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DryShip ImageDryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is seeing its shares surge on news that it has received waivers from lenders.  We have been expecting this for some time, and fairly recent reports of a share sale made this only look more likely that waivers would be granted.  This should even bring about some very positive trends after its recent issues brought up by auditors.

The drybulk and offshore oil services shipping company reached agreement with HSH Nordbank as agents on waiver terms for $654 million of the company’s outstanding debt under its credit facilities. This facility covers 23 of the company’s drybulk vessels.

This waiver and a recent possible share sale filing should negate part of those old going concern fears for one of its units.  Back on March 30, 2009, we noted about the auditors giving a ‘going concern ‘ note to the company’s Ocean Rig ASA unit.  It also recently completed a financing in April.  We can’t say 100% that those are gone, but a possible capital raise and a waiver from lenders should negate the fears there.

DryShips has traded 27 million shares after being open a mere 45 minutes, and so far this is up 15% at $7.03.  To show how volatile this one is, the 52-week trading range of $2.72 to $116.43 pretty much says it all.

Here is the most recent SEC Filing with that data on the terms allowed for a share sale, which looks like the company will be selling shares from time to time directly into the market by the placement agent.

Jon C. Ogg
May 15, 2009

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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