OSLO (Bloomberg) — Seadrill Ltd., the oil-rig owner founded by billionaire John Fredriksen, may borrow, through banks or the bond market, to help finance its offer for Scorpion Offshore Ltd. and the possible purchase of a rig.

"We already have a great deal of financial flexibility," chief financial officer Trond Brandsrud said in a phone interview yestreday. "We'll consider whether to issue new debt. We have quite a few rigs in our portfolio that haven't been used as collateral so we still have a large borrowing capacity."

Seadrill on Monday offered to buy the remaining shares in Scorpion after increasing its stake to 40.1 percent, triggering a mandatory bid for the offshore oilrig company. It completed a private placement of 12.5 million shares yesterday, raising 1.9 billion kroner ($322 million) in part to fund the acquisition.

Seadrill hasn't decided yet how to finance in full the Scorpion purchase or the possible acquisition of a jack-up rig being built at the Jurong Shipyard, Brandsrud said. The private placement was part of it, he said.

"We now have four weeks to think of what our final offer will be," Brandsrud said. He didn't give the price the company may offer, while saying that the 36 kroner it paid investors in the market is a "floor." That values Scorpion at about 3.23 billion kroner, based on Bloomberg calculations.

The Bermuda-based company, which is run from Norway, has no knowledge of a rival bid and has had no formal response from Scorpion regarding the offer, Brandsrud said.

"They've said before they're positive to participating in a consolidation of this market segment," he said. That gives Seadrill reason to hope Scorpion will respond positively to the offer, he said.

Seadrill said it's prepared to own between 40.1 percent and 100 percent of Scorpion, without setting conditions for an acceptance of the offer.

"What's important for us is that we have influence and management and control of the company," Brandsrud said. Having majority control, over 50 percent, would be "useful", he said.

Seadrill shares slipped 1.6 percent to 149.4 kroner in Oslo trading as of 12:08 p.m. local time, while Scorpion rose 2.2 percent to 37.1 kroner.

The market has fallen for oil services today, and the deal is fairly neutral for Seadrill stock, Ole Andre Hagen, an analyst at Oslo-based Fondsfinans ASA who has a "buy" recommendation on Seadrill's shares, said by phone today.

"This may be the start of more M&A activity," Hagen said. "What remains to be seen is whether they'll announce an even bigger deal."

Scorpion's backlog and fleet quality fit well with Seadrill, Kjetil Garstad, an analyst with Arctic Securities ASA, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. The company controlled by Fredriksen has said it wants to consolidate the industry, both for deepwater rigs and premium jack-up rigs, which have legs that extend to the sea floor and can be used for drilling in shallower waters.

Seadrill chief executive officer Alf Thorkildsen said in a March 5 interview that Scorpion and Houston-based Pride International Inc., in which it has a 9.5 percent stake, have complementary assets that could be combined.

ŸSeadrill was downgraded to a "neutral' rating from a "buy" rating at Fondsfinans ASA yesterday, which cited the share's recent strong price development. The target price was raised to 155 kroner from 150 kroner.