Greek shipping magnate George Economou has made a move on another fellow publicly listed shipowner, picking up a slice of capesize owner Seanergy Maritime.
A filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Economou’s investment vehicle, Sphinx, a subsidiary of Maryport Navigation, has accumulated 1.12m shares in Nasdaq-listed Seanergy, corresponding to a 5.7% stake in the Stamatis Tsantanis-led outfit.
The position in Seanergy is the third major one Economou has flagged this year after buy-ins in Palios family-linked tanker owner Performance Shipping and dry bulk player OceanPal, a spinoff of Diana Shipping.
Economou has made clear his intentions towards Performance with a cash tender offer to take control of the company and a lawsuit against its insiders and directors, but things at OceanPal have so far been quiet.
Several other publicly listed dry bulk players have made stock exchange headlines this year. The US-based-based of 52 ultramax/supramax vessels, Eagle Bulk, attracted containership lessor Danaos and Petros Panagiotidis’ bulker and boxship outfit Castor Maritime to take 16.7% and 14.99% stakes in the company, respectively. Peter Weernink-led SwissMarine also snapped up a 5.34% position in Nasdaq-listed US bulker owner Pangaea Logistics Solutions.
Seanergy supremo Tsantanis maintains substantial control and influence over what is going on at Seanergy via Series B preferred shares and a sufficient number of common shares and Economou’s latest play remains open to speculation. He joins Konstantinos Konstantakopoulos, chairman and CEO of Greek boxship and bulker owner Costamare, who disclosed a 5.1% stake in Seanergy in July.
Athens-based Seanergy operates a 17-vessel-strong fleet consisting of one newcastlemax and 16 capes. The company logged a net loss of $8.5m for the first nine months of 2023 on revenues of $70.8m. The company’s shares, however, are trading at 52-week highs, most likely backed by the recent rally in capesize charter rates not seen in many years.
