Longtime Offshore-Energy Investor Robotti & Company Calls on McDermott Board to Let All Shareholders Participate Equally in Rights Offering

Article content

Urges McDermott to Amend Offering Terms to Include an Oversubscription Privilege

Article content

Expresses View That Offering Price Massively Undervalues the Recovered and Growing Business

Article content

Article content

Criticizes Structure of Offering for Concentrating Ownership Among Privileged Insiders While Diluting Others

Article content

NEW YORK, July 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Robotti & Company Advisors, LLC and its affiliates (“Robotti”), a shareholder of McDermott International, Ltd. (“McDermott” or the “Company”), today issued a letter it had previously shared with the board of directors of McDermott regarding the Company’s pending refinancing and rights offering (the “Rights Offering”). In the letter, Robotti criticized the Rights Offering as massively undervaluing McDermott’s business, expressing the view that McDermott had demonstrated sustained recovery and the $1.50 per share price provided for by the Rights Offering was unsupported by the Company’s performance. Robotti further argued that the Rights Offering structurally disadvantaged McDermott shareholders to the benefit of a small group of privileged insiders who are acting as backstop parties and who stand to disproportionately benefit from the transaction. Finally, Robotti called on McDermott to amend the terms of the Rights Offering to provide an oversubscription privilege for all participating shareholders to permit fair and equal participation in the Company’s continued success.

Article content

Article content

The full text of the letter follows (certain numbers updated as of July 9, 2026, as noted below).

Article content

Article content

July 7, 2026

Article content

MCDERMOTT INTERNATIONAL, LTD
17320 Katy Freeway, 4th Floor
Houston, Texas 77094
Attention: Board of Directors

Article content

Members of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of McDermott International, Ltd. (“McDermott” or the “Company”):

Article content

Robotti & Company Advisors, LLC and its affiliates (collectively, “Robotti,” “we” or “us”) is an independent, value-oriented investment advisor managing approximately $1.2 billion on behalf of partners and clients and is the beneficial owner of approximately 2% of the outstanding Class A Ordinary Shares (“Shares”) of the Company. We have extensive knowledge of the offshore energy and marine-construction industry.¹ Our perspective is that of a long-term and involved shareholder, not a passive or opportunistic holder, and we believe in taking an active role in our investments where necessary, including where we and our fellow shareholders face serious dilution and financial harm.²

Article content

We write today to express our serious concerns with the Company’s recently announced refinancing and recapitalization (specifically the “Rights Offering” component). As currently structured, the Rights Offering provides an enormous discount to the fundamental value of the Company, but directs that value disproportionately to its four backstop investors, two of whom have representatives on the Board, at the expense of the rest of the Company’s shareholders. Functionally, the Rights Offering would redistribute existing equity value disproportionately to a small group of shareholders we understand to be a control group. However, we believe the fix is simple: all participating shareholders should be entitled to an oversubscription privilege, permitting all participants to share equally in the value of the Rights Offering and support the Company’s future.

Article content

Article content

The Company’s Own Account: the Business Has Turned a Corner

Article content

Our conviction rests on the same facts the Company itself has been emphasizing in its own audited financial statements and refinancing materials. By McDermott’s own account, the business has continued its demonstrable recovery, including:

Article content

Article content

This is a business on a marked and sustained upswing that we believe can and will succeed, and all of its shareholders participating in the rights offering – not just a privileged few – should be able to purchase a pro rata portion of the rights that go unexercised.