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Economou amends DryShips facility to allow for further acquisitions

George Economou’s DryShips has moved itself into position to further its recent acquisition strategy after reaching an agreement with Sifnos Shareholders, an entity controlled by Economou, to amend the $200m revolving facility agreement extended by Sifnos in December last year.

The Sifnos facility will cease to be secured by DryShips’s present and future assets and the maturity will be extended from three to five years. For its efforts, Sifnos will receive a $2m amendment fee and an increased margin over LIBOR of 650bps, previously 100bps.

Anthony Kandylidis, DryShips president and CFO, commented: “We are very excited by the commitment shown by Mr. George Economou to free up collateral which will assist DryShips in its efforts to access bank debt financing for the first time since November 2014. This should increase our available liquidity and allow us to pursue further acquisitions.”

Since the facility was first granted by Sifnos, DryShips has acquired several vessels including a move into VLGC gas ships and a return to the tanker market.

DryShips shares continued their fall on the Nasdaq today, dropping a further 11.4% to 62 cents having fallen over 32% on Friday after a reverse stock split was announced.

Grant Rowles

Grant spent nine years at Informa Group based in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. He gained strong management experience in publishing, conferences and awards schemes in the shipping and legal areas, working on a number of titles including Lloyd's List. In 2009 Grant joined Seatrade responsible for the commercial development of Seatrade’s Asia products. In 2012, with Sam Chambers, he co-founded Asia Shipping Media.
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