Eneti is to launch a $200m offering of new stock on the New York Stock Exchange to help fund construction of its wind turbine installation vessel newbuilding programme.
Scorpio Holdings, the private arm of the Scorpio Group and a related party, is interested in buying at least $30m of the shares at the public offering price, a release said on Monday.
The offering price has not yet been announced.
Issuing the new shares will almost double Eneti's market capitalisation, which currently stands at around $259m, based on its current share price.
The firm's WTIV newbuilding programme currently consists of one contracted vessel, one optional vessel and one proposed Jones Act-compliant vessel.
Eneti's share price was down by 8.5% to $13.00 from the Friday's close before markets opened in New York on Monday.
Citigroup, DNB Markets, BTIG and Nomura are acting as joint bookrunners in the share offering.
Clarksons Platou Securities, Fearnley Securities and Kepler Cheuvreux are acting as co-managers.
In September, Eneti registered its intent to sell 131.87m shares — worth $2.2bn at that time — from time to time in the US, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The same month, Clarksons Securities' wind energy specialist Turner Holm said Eneti would be able to finance construction of its $330m WTIV newbuilding without resorting to a sale of new shares.
Holm said Eneti should have ample resources from cash and bank debt to pay for the high-specification newbuilding, which will be delivered from South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in 2024.
Eneti's share price has declined by around 29% since Holm published his analysis.
The company was known as Scorpio Bulkers until last year, when it began to sell off its fleet of bulk carriers last year in order to focus solely on WTIVs.
