Greek shipowner George Economou has upped his stake in the Palios family-linked dry bulk player OceanPal ahead of an upcoming boardroom challenge.
The latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows Economou has accumulated an additional 1% stake in the Diana Shipping spinoff via his investment vehicle Sphinx and now owns 12.1% of the company chaired by Semiramis Paliou, daughter of shipping veteran Simeon Palios.
Earlier this year, Economou revealed his plan to oust most of OceanPal’s directors, proposing to stockholders to request their resignation while nominating former chairman of OceanFreight and ex-board members of Ocean Rig, John Liveris and Georgios Kokkodis, for board election at the company’s next annual meeting of stockholders.
OceanPal is yet to release its Q4 2023 numbers and the date for the annual meeting of shareholders, which last year took place in May.
Economou made his first move on OceanPal in September 2023 and has so far paid nearly $1.2m for his stake in the Nasdaq-listed owner of three panamaxes and a pair of capes estimated to be worth around $63m.
There are seven board members at OceanPal, and Economou is looking to remove five of them.
Chair Paliou has also been bolstering her position, lifting her stake in OceanPal to 28.42%, while Anastasios Margaronis, president and board member at Diana Shipping, has strengthened his position and now owns about 7.57% of the company.
Economou made his first move on Palios family-linked shipowners in August last year when he bought into the aframax specialist Performance Shipping. The war of words that escalated afterward led to Economou first being after a board seat at Performance with Liveris again as a candidate, then seeking resignations from four existing directors, including chief executive Andreas Michalopoulos, to ultimately launching a cash tender offer in a bid to gain control of the US-listed tanker owner.
