Nordic American Offshore's Stock Plunges After Big Stock Offering Prices At Deep Discount

Shares of Nordic American Offshore Ltd. plummeted 41% toward a record low in premarket trade Friday, after the operator of platform supply vessels announced a share offering, which would nearly triple the shares outstanding, that priced at a sharp discount. The company announced late Thursday a public offering of 33.3 million shares, but said early Friday that it was boosting the offering to 40 million shares. The company recently had about 20.7 million shares outstanding, according to FactSet. The share offering priced at $1.25, which was 39% below Thursday's closing price of $2.05. Nordic American said the underwriters of the offering have reserved about $10 million worth of the new share for sale to Nordic American Tankers Ltd., the company's largest shareholder, and $2 million worth of new shares to Executive Chairman Herbjorn Hansson. The company plans to use the proceeds from the stock offering for general corporate purposes and for the expansion of its fleet. The stock has tumbled 31% over the past three months through Thursday, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.2%.