George Economou is prolonging his takeover offer for tanker owner Performance Shipping after the first shareholders agreed to sell.
A filing by his Sphinx Investment Corp shows the tender for the New York-listed company’s stock is now valid until 28 June, extending the previous deadline of 28 March.
Sphinx has 1.03m Performance shares separate from the offer, or 8.4%.
As of 25 March, 609,914 shares had been validly tendered, the first time shareholders had agreed to sell to Economou since the offer was launched at $3 per share in October.
The share closed down 1% at $1.88 in New York on Tuesday.
The offer has been taking place against a backdrop of legal action instigated by Economou.
He is suing directors and insiders at Performance, claiming they breached their fiduciary duties to shareholders in dominating voting control of the company through a dual-class ownership structure.
The Greek tycoon wants a US court to invalidate the vote that allowed the shares exchange from December 2021 into 2022.
Performance, one of three public shipowners controlled by the family of Greek patriarch Simeon Palios, filed a motion to dismiss the action in January.
Economou revealed in his latest statement that Sphinx has filed an opposition motion.
Uncertain outcome
Performance’s response is due on 4 April, the filing added.
“The outcome of the motions to dismiss and the cancellation proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty,” Sphinx said.
Performance alleges that Economou became a shareholder solely so he could buy a legal claim against the shipowner.
The family of founder Palios, who also founded New York-listed Diana Shipping and OceanPal, controls about 90% of Performance’s voting power, according to Economou’s complaint.
Insiders amassed the dominant block partly through a December 2021 initiative in which they converted common shares into non-voting Series B preferred shares, which then transitioned to super-voting Series C shares.
Each of the Series C units has the voting control of 10 common shares.
Performance chairwoman Aliki Paliou, the daughter of Palios, had controlled about 85% of voting shares through her Mango Shipping, an entity founded by her father, the lawsuit alleges.
But a filing on 20 March showed this was down to 66.4%.
Andreas Michalopoulos, Paliou’s husband and Performance’s chief executive, controls about 3.6% of votes through his Mitzela Corp, the complaint states.
