Evercore ISI Cuts Price Target on North Atlantic Drilling Ltd. (NADL) Following Epsilon Terminaton

Evercore ISI maintained a Sell rating on North Atlantic Drilling Ltd. (NYSE: NADL), and cut the price target to $2.00 (from $2.50), following the company's "notice of cancellation" from Statoil for the West Epsilon drilling contract. This marks the second NADL rig to be cancelled by Statoil this year.

Analyst James West commented, "NADL disclosed it received a "notice of cancellation" from Statoil for the West Epsilon drilling contract, making it the second NADL rig to be cancelled by Statoil thus far this year. The 380' harsh high spec jackup was previously contracted through December 2016, but will now be released in mid-October for a lump sum payment of ~$11 million. While NADL is being made whole for the cancelled contract and we had already forecasted the Epsilon to be off rate for most of 2017, we are concerned Statoil may also release the West Elara when it's contract ends in March. The 450' harsh high spec Elara is one of NADL's only two remaining contracted rigs. The unit is currently working in the Valemon field in the Norwegian Continental Shelf, where development drilling was previously scheduled to be complete in 2017. We note that jackup contract cancellations seems to have accelerated in recent weeks, accounting for three of four contracts cancelled this month to date. In contrast, only two jackup contracts were cancelled through August."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on North Atlantic Drilling click here. For more ratings news on North Atlantic Drilling click here.

Shares of North Atlantic Drilling closed at $2.75 yesterday.

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