Orsted Offers Shares at Sharp Discount in Rights Issue — Update

By Dominic Chopping

Orsted outlined the terms of its previously announced rights issue as it seeks to raise around $9.4 billion in fresh funds to continue its offshore wind-construction projects.

The offering will comprise 901 million new shares at a subscription price of 66.60 kroner ($10.47) each, a sharp discount to Friday's closing price of 200.30 kroner.

Shareholders will be allocated 15 preemptive rights for each existing share they own. For every seven pre-emptive rights, the shareholder will be entitled to subscribe for one new share.

The Danish renewable-energy company last month said it needed to raise cash as developments in the U.S. wind market have disrupted its plans to sell assets, a situation that has since deteriorated after President Trump's administration ordered the company to halt construction of a U.S. offshore wind farm.

Having struggled with supply-chain bottlenecks, higher interest rates and trouble getting tax credits, it launched a major restructuring last year after deciding to pull out of two high-profile wind projects off the coast of New Jersey.

The plan includes a large-scale divestment program to free-up funds for its most financially attractive projects, shore up its balance sheet and support a solid investment grade rating--key for ensuring access to cheaper financing in capital-intensive wind farm projects.

As part of those efforts, Orsted had planned a partial sale of its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York, but was recently forced to shelve the plan as conditions in the U.S. wind market have deteriorated.

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized wind-energy and has taken steps to halt or delay projects, including introducing legislation that phases out tax credits for investing in and producing clean energy as well as for wind-energy components.

The soured sentiment meant Orsted was unable to complete the partial sale and associated funding of Sunrise Wind on favorable terms and will instead have to fund the entire project construction itself, leading to a funding requirement of 40 billion kroner.

U.S. officials also last month ordered Orsted to stop construction of its major Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island. That followed a similar move by the administration against Norway's Equinor, which was forced to halt work on its Empire Wind project off the New York coast earlier this year before the order was lifted a month later.

"We're raising capital to cover immediate financing needs from retaining full ownership of Sunrise Wind, to manage risks from regulatory uncertainty in the U.S., and to strengthen Orsted's capital structure so we can deliver on our growth pipeline and long-term value creation," Chief Executive Rasmus Errboe said in a statement.

In its prospectus published Monday, Orsted said the Revolution Wind stop-work order is costing it up to $15 million a week in extra capital expenditure, but that these costs will increase significantly if it isn't lifted by late September.

If it is forced to cancel Revolution Wind completely, the company said it would face impairments of 8 billion kroner plus $500 million in additional costs.

The Sunrise Wind project is also feeling the knock-on effect of the Revolution Wind stop order due to disrupted scheduling of installation vessels. Orsted estimates the cost at around $10 million a week.

Orsted expects to complete the rights issue on Oct. 9.

The Danish state, which holds a 50.1% stake in the company, and Equinor, which owns 10%, have both committed to subscribe for their share of the offering.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 15, 2025 09:50 ET (13:50 GMT)