Israel’s Delek Drilling on 27 July announced plans to raise $2.25bn (and potentially up to $2.5bn) in a bond backed by its share of future revenue from Israel’s 22.8tcf Leviathan gas field. This comes only two weeks after the firm tried, and seemingly failed, to drum up interest in a $2.5bn Leviathan-backed reserves based lending (RBL) facility (MEES, 17 July).
The three key ratings agencies all promptly afforded ‘Leviathan Bond Ltd’ junk ratings. Moody’s assigned a Ba3 rating, three notches below investment grade, S&P gave an equivalent BB- rating, whilst Fitch opted for BB, one notch higher. (CONTINUED - 1992 WORDS)
