Just as his bid to take over tanker player Performance Shipping was struggling, Greek shipowner and investor George Economou quietly built a small stake in a different, New York-listed company.
A stock market filing on Friday revealed that Economou has a 5.4% stake in Genco Shipping & Trading, a US-based owner of nearly 50 capesizes, ultramaxes and supramaxes.
Economou holds about 2.3m shares through an entity called GK Investor and its managing affiliates Sphinx Investment and Maryport Navigation.
According to the filing, GK Investor spent $33.4m on stock it purchased gradually between 15 November and 27 December at prices ranging between $13.97 and $16.42 per share.
GK Investor furthermore on 5 December asked Genco to “provide … electronic copies of its form of director questionnaire with respect to proposed nominees for election to the issuer’s [Genco's] board of directors”.
Sphinx is a vehicle that Economou has repeatedly used to engage with US-listed shipping companies.
Over the years, those have included his own — now private — outfit DryShips, as well as boxship player Danaos Corp and tanker company Top Ships.
Earlier in 2023, Economou used Sphinx to acquire stakes in capesize specialist Seanergy Maritime, Aliki Paliou-controlled Performance Shipping and Semiramis Paliou-led OceanPal.
Economou’s involvement with Performance came with added drama.
Shortly after revealing a 9.5% stake in August, Economou and Sphinx began firing off activist shareholder letters aimed at Performance’s “dual-class” shareholding structure and its history of dilutive equity raises through US investment bank the Maxim Group.
Next came Economou’s announcement that he would wage a proxy fight against the Performance board, and demands that it unwind a 2022 deal that resulted in company insiders increasing their control through the acquisition of super-voting shares.
The private Greek owner soon announced a tender for all Performance shares.
That offer, however, yielded no immediate results, leaving Economou obliged to play the long game and extend the offer’s expiration date to 28 March 2024.
When investing in OceanPal in September, Economou promised to be an active shareholder that expected to enter from time to time into discussions with the company's directors, officers and stockholders or third parties over a wide range of issues.
These issues would include OceanPal's management and board composition, governance, operations, strategic plans and its future in general.
