The threatened proxy fight between Seanergy Maritime Holdings and George Economou grew increasingly warlike on Monday as the Greek mogul accused the company of “robbing investors” of their governance rights.
The latest swipe by the shipping tycoon-turned-activist investor came on the same evening that Stamatis Tsantanis-led Seanergy was holding its party during the Posidonia event in Greece.
Economu’s private Sphinx Investment issued a statement responding to a securities filing by Seanergy last week, in which the New York-listed shipowner defended its governance record.
Seanergy’s own missive, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, was in turn a response to a move by Economou to launch a proxy fight to put his own representatives on the bulker company’s board and to ask shareholders to cast a vote of no confidence against chief executive Tsantanis.
“It appears to us that Seanergy thinks that it can confuse shareholders into forgetting what CEO Stamatis Tsantanis and the ‘independent’ members of the Seanergy board of directors have done to them by reciting platitudes about good governance and strategic plans. Let us help refresh their memories,” Sphinx said.
“The Seanergy board effectively robbed shareholders of their governance rights by selling 49.99% of its voting power to CEO Tsantanis for a paltry $250,000, at a time when the company had more than $400m in assets.”
TradeWinds requested comment from Tsantanis, although it was late in the evening in Athens.
On Friday, Seanergy said its board and management team are executing a clear corporate strategy that focuses on investing in the fleet to drive growth, rewarding shareholders with “durable capital returns” and a healthy balance sheet.
“We believe our strategy is working,” the company said.
And it highlighted that four members of its board are independent, and the governance body is open-minded.
But Economou disagreed. Sphinx said the transaction that gave Tsantanis his voting power was rubber-stamped by a board that he handpicked.
And the company hit back at Seanergy’s claims that a proxy fight would be costly.
“What would be costly would be allowing this board to continue to engage in self-dealing with impunity,” Sphinx said.
The company also rejected the claim that he has refused to engage with Seanergy, alleging that Tsantanis has refused multiple requests to speak directly with Economou.
“Perhaps Mr Tsantanis is afraid?” Sphinx asked. “Our ongoing litigation and shareholder proposals are not based on a simple policy disagreement. This is about what is right and what is wrong.”
Sphinx is represented in the litigation and the proxy threat by Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.
