Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Excel files for chapter 11 protection

Excel files for chapter 11 protection
Excel Maritime has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of a recently agreed financial restructuring.

As part of the restructuring arrangement Excel will receive $80m of liquidity, $50m as part of an equity deal between its lenders and a company owned by Mr. Panayotides, chairman of the board at Excel, and a further $30m in previously restricted cash.

Excel estimates its total enterprise value at $575m to $625m; it has a senior syndicated bank debt of $771m. The chapter 11 papers were filed yesterday with courts in the Southern District of New York.

Despite being expected, the announcement on June 11 that the company was considering filing for protection sent ripples through the Greek shipowning community, as detailed by David Glass and was a hot topic in shipping finance circles in the run up recent Marine Money conference, as covered by Barry Parker earlier this month.