Seanergy Maritime Holdings has scored a victory in its legal battle with Greek shipping tycoon George Economou.
The New York-listed bulker owner’s board of directors said in a securities filing that the Marshall Islands High Court dismissed the lawsuit filed by Economou’s Sphinx Investment.
“We are moving forward with our regularly scheduled 2024 annual meeting,” board members said in a filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission.
Economou is planning to appeal to the Marshall Islands Supreme Court, according to a source with knowledge of the litigation.
Economou had sued Seanergy in the Marshall Islands, the home of its corporate registration, in a bid to invalidate preferred shares that gave Tsantanis 49.99% of the bulker company’s shareholder vote.
Among her reasons for throwing out the case, Marshall Islands High Court associate justice Linda Murnane ruled that Economou did not have standing to sue because he invested in Seanergy shares after the issuance of the preferred shares in question, according to a source with knowledge of the case.
The dismissal by Murnane, a retired US military judge serving a two-year term in the Marshall Islands, allows Athens-based Seanergy to press ahead with an annual general meeting that Economou sought to block in court.
Chief executive Stamatis Tsantanis told TradeWinds that the company is “very pleased” with the decision.
“It’s business as usual,” he said. “This company has been doing very well. We have produced a lot of value for our shareholders. We over-performed the market.”
The case has seen Economou, once criticised for his corporate governance at former US-listed DryShips, take the role of activist investor.
A source with knowledge of the case said Economou is playing the long game.
He said the shipowner’s legal team expected Murnane’s decision and has always planned on taking it to the Supreme Court, which they expect to be a more favourable forum.
The Supreme Court is led by chief justice Daniel Cadra, a US-Marshall Islands citizen who has spent more than 20 years on the archipelago nation’s highest tribunal. He is joined on the bench by two US district court judges serving as associate justices in the Marshall Islands.
