Ocean Rig helps Dryships bridge notes gap with $120m loan

Ocean Rig owns and operations 13 ultra deepwater drillships and semi submersible drillships and is a majority-owned subsidiary of Dryships.

A short term unsecured loan will be provided by the rigowner for Dryships to use, "if necessary," to cover the bond which matures on 1 December 2014.

Earlier this year Dryships secured a $350m bridging loan with ABN Amro, backed by Ocean Rig stock, to partially refinance the convertible bond. "We are confident that the remaining cash required to fully refinance the convertible bond will be raised prior to the bond's maturity," chairman and ceo George Economou said at the time of the announcement in July.

The ABN Amro deal was followed by a $170m secured credit facility with Nordea Bank which included over $100m towards refinancing the notes.