Rowan (RDC) Announces $400M Worth Senior Notes Offering

Contract drilling services provider Rowan Companies plc (NYSE:RDC) recently declared the public offering of unsecured senior notes. The notes, which are worth $400 million, will mature by 2025. The net proceeds will likely be used for funding tender offers.

The weak commodity pricing scenario has been impacting Rowan Companies for a long time. Low commodity prices have resulted in drillers like Rowan getting lower contracts from the upstream players. However, the scenario is improving as oil has started recovering after the recent OPEC deal to curb production.

Interestingly, this is the first time since 2008 that OPEC has signed a deal to cut oil production. No doubt, this is the most crucial move in the energy sector this year to restore crude prices. In fact, oil has started to recover with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude currently trading above $50 per barrel mark.

Per the accord, OPEC will lower its production by 1.2 million barrels per day (MMB/D) to 32.5 MMB/D – effective Jan 1, 2017 – from 33.6 MMB/D. Notably, the production cut – almost 1% of worldwide output – is much more than what was projected by most analysts. Saudi Arabia has shouldered most of the output cut. It will lower production by about 486,000 barrels per day. Iraq, on the other hand, agreed to cut output by 210,000 barrels per day, which marks the second-highest reduction.

Definitely, the crude price recovery will further boost the company’s already improving stock price. During the last one month, Rowan gained more than 32% compared with almost 31% increase for the Zacks categorized Oil & Gas-Drilling industry.

However, we do not expect the crude momentum to continue as U.S shale players are once again on track to ramp up production. This could once again spell doom for the driller’s contracts.

Houston, TX-based Rowan provides international and domestic contract drilling and aviation services. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked players in the energy sector are Newfield Exploration Company (NYSE:NFX) , EQT Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:EQM) and Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (NYSE:HLX) .

Newfield is likely to witness year-over-year earnings growth of more than 3% in the current year. The company sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

EQT Midstream is projected to witness year-over-year earnings growth of more than 14% in the current year. It has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Helix Energy posted an average positive earnings surprise of 56.42% in the last four quarters. The company has a Zacks Rank #2.

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