George Economou has bought about 70,000 more shares in OceanPal over the past month at a time when he is fighting for representation on the board.
The Greek shipping magnate has pushed his holding to 899,000 shares, or 12.1%, of the New York-listed dry bulk shipowner, up from 11.1% at last reporting on 23 January.
OceanPal is one of two spin-offs of Greece’s Diana Shipping, founded by Simeon Palios, to be targeted by Economou for stock purchases and then attempts to change the composition of the board.
In the case of tanker owner Performance Shipping, he is pressing a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court charging that the board has breached its fiduciary duties to shareholders.
Economou has extended a tender offer for Performance, although the process is in effect on hold until the court can sort his charges. Performance is seeking to dismiss the case, claiming Economou invested solely so he could buy a legal claim against the company.
As TradeWinds has reported, Economou in a previous filing demanded the resignations of five OceanPal directors while nominating two of his own to stand for election at the next general shareholders meeting.
OceanPal is led by Palios’ daughter and largest shareholder, Semiramis Paliou, who is one of the five directors Economou is seeking to remove, along with Styliani Alexandra Sougioultzoglou, Alexios Chrysochoidis, Eleftherios Papatrifon and Grigorios-Filippos Psaltis.
He has nominated John Liveris, a veteran of two former New York-listed companies then controlled by Economou, for election to the OceanPal board.
Economou also nominated Georgios Kokkodis, an independent financial consultant.
OceanPal owns a fleet of five bulkers but also has investments in two chemical tanker newbuildings.
It is trading off of its 2024 high of $3.07 per share on 11 January. Shares were trading around $1.90 on Monday. The stock began the year at $2.24.
The company has a market capitalisation of about $14m.
Economou is also waging a proxy fight against a bigger target in dry bulk: New York-listed Genco Shipping & Trading, whose market cap is near $827m. He holds about 5.4% of the company.
