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Castor Maritime seals loan for further fleet growth

Greek dry bulk owner Castor Maritime has sealed an $11m secured term loan facility with Alpha Bank, which it expects to be drawn down before the end of the year.

The company says it intends to use the funds to retire a $7.5m shareholder bridge loan, with the remainder to be used to fund ongoing plans for growth.

Petros Panagiotidis, chief executive officer and chief financial officer of Castor, commented: “We are pleased to have concluded our first secured term loan financing with Alpha Bank, a first class bank, at competitive terms. We welcome this new banking relationship and remain committed to utilizing our balance sheet in the most effective way for continuing our growth plans.”

Founded in September 2017, Castor listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market earlier this year with one ship in its fleet but has grown that to three panamax bulkers with recent acquisitions from Diana Shipping and Pavimar, which is led by Panagiotidis’ sister Ismini Panagiotidi.

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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