Survive and advance.

The credo is borrowed from sports, but it might as well belong to New York-listed Eneti after the wind-energy player made at least $175m the hard way in a recent equity raise.

No, it was not pretty. In a stare-down with investors, it was buyers who got the upper hand, sending New York-listed Eneti's share price down 36% at pricing of the secondary offering.

But it was the company that got the cash, and it is Eneti management that is ready to contract for its second wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) newbuilding in South Korea and its first Jones Act-compliant WTIV in Texas.

Company management had been restricted from commenting on the shares issue while it was pending, but shared thoughts with TradeWinds now that the deal has closed.

"I think it was a tough deal," Eneti chief executive Emanuele Lauro said from the company's base in Monaco, where he was still shaking off the cobwebs of a trans-Atlantic flight from the US.

"This was an equity raise that we described from day one as 'a re-IPO of the business'," he said. "We stayed in the market for five days. The way to see it is a re-IPO rather than a standard follow-on offering."

Investors held significant leverage. In short, they knew Eneti needed the cash.

A prospectus showed an option for the second $330m WTIV unit at South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering would expire on the very day the deal was to price.

In addition, Eneti was "in final discussions" with the Keppel AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, for the Jones Act-compliant WTIV for delivery in 2024, seeking to lock up "early mover" advantage in the market.

Eneti president Robert Bugbee on raising $175m: 'There were significant hurdles.' Photo: Johnathon Henninger/TradeWinds Events

Yet another complication: Eneti faced a refinancing deadline early next year on debt maturities it inherited from its $600m acquisition of UK-based WTIV specialist Seajacks in August.

"There were significant hurdles," Eneti president Robert Bugbee said. "We were also raising a significant amount of money compared to the size of the company. It is a small company in a new market with very low daily trading volume."

The low volume excluded some who wanted to buy in, while many potential European investors were restricted from buying a secondary issuance of a US-listed company.

"Those are handicaps," Bugbee said. "They aren't excuses, they're facts."

But still, Eneti got the money. Survive and advance.

The advancing should be the fun part.

For the DSME project, Eneti is in the typical documentation period that comes between declaring the option and signing a formal contract, Lauro said.

"It's going to take a couple more weeks," Lauro said, noting that Eneti's contract price is about $5m to $7m cheaper than the $330m it is paying for the initial unit.

As for the Jones Act WTIV, there is a reason Lauro had just returned from the US. The Eneti leader revealed he had not been in Texas, where the shipyard is located, but rather Washington DC – the epicentre for the regulation surrounding cabotage law and the emerging US offshore wind industry.

"We are finalising the agreement to order our Jones Act-compliant ship," Lauro said. "We were very vocal during the deal roadshow that we were going to build the vessel in conjunction with its first employment contract."

That unit will cost $550m in the estimate of BTIG analyst Greg Lewis — but this was a number Lauro declined to confirm.

Eneti's cash haul from the equity raise could grow to about $200m if underwriters exercise overallotment options to buy more shares. But the share will need to trade better as it has mostly remained below the $9 deal price to date.

Bugbee said the deal was marketed virtually to more than 50 institutions and included a "wall-crossing" process at the outset.

Those who bought in include "long-only" funds with other investments in the renewable space, with a small retail component of less than 5%, he said.

He added that the deal was split about 50:50 between US and European buyers.

Scorpio Holdings — the private arm of Scorpio Group — wound up taking about 3.67m shares, or roughly 20% of the offering, while Bugbee bought 222,222 shares.

"The main thing is the company raised the money to fulfil its potential," Bugbee said. "Strategically, it did the most important thing: raise the money needed to execute the plan."