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Panayotides' offices raided by Excel Maritime's new owners

Panayotides' offices raided by Excel Maritime's new owners
Staff working in the north Athens office of shipowner Gabriel 'Villy' Panayotides, the founder of Excel Maritime Carriers, were prevented from entering the building while documents and computer equipment were removed. This followed the removal of the shipowner as ceo of Excel by US fund Oaktree Capital.

A number of staff are also said to have been removed from their positions. Excel emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy three months ago under the control of financial investors Oaktree and Angelo Gordon, though Panayotides remained with an 8% stake in the company, which was delisted in 2013 from the New York Stock Exchange.

This is the second blow for the hard-working Panayotides who also lost control of Denmark¹s tanker and bulker owner Torm in 2012.

Seatrade Global understands legal representatives of Oaktree prevented staff from entering the offices of Excel and fleet management company Maryville Maritime, also controlled by Panayotides in the north Athens suburb of Nea Kifissia the morning of May 28. Phones were not working for part of the day after staff were directed to the new address.

Items removed from the offices were loaded onto trucks and transferred to premises in Koropi, not far from the Athens international airport.
There has been no announcement of a replacement chief executive and contrary to early reports most of the previous senior management line-up seems to be intact, led by cfo Pavlos Kanellopoulos and coo Kostas Koutsoubelis.

Under a plan approved by a US bankruptcy court in January, Panayotides had his Excel stake cut from 55% to 8%, but he got to stay on as ceo as Oaktree assumed control. Originally, the Excel Chapter 11 pre-packaged plan to restructure the company saw Panayotides with up to 60% control, but his stake was slashed as funds holding the company's debt opposed the plan. On the subsequent new board, Oaktree has three seats, Angelo Gordon two and Panayotides two.

Panayotides stepped down in the spring of 2012 after a boardroom battle and shareholders approved a plan to reduce the company's share capital to allow creditors, banks and charterers to get a suitable percentage of the company at a fair value. Panayotides lost control after the restructuring packagediluted his majority 52.2% shareholding to a minimal level.