Things are heating up again between Greek capesize specialist Seanergy Maritime and fellow shipping magnate George Economou. Just as his pursuit for board seats at bulker players Genco and OceanPal had ended, Economou came out with two nominees to the Seanergy board, the latest of moves on the Stamatis Tsantanis-led company. Economou, who owns nearly 9% of Nasdaq-listed Seanergy through his investment vehicle Sphinx, has launched a proxy fight, naming John Liveris and Georgios Kokkodis as his board picks just a few months after suing the company. Liveris is the former chairman of OceanFreight and an ex-board member of Ocean Rig, while Kokkodis also served on the Ocean Rig board and DryShips. Both were previously Economou’s candidates for Diana Shipping spinoff OceanPal. The proxy contest has been on the cards since March when Economou filed a lawsuit in the Marshall Islands against Seanergy Maritime, its supremo Tsantanis, and other directors for allegedly seizing control of the company by creating “super-voting” shares. The Greek shipowner is seeking to cancel the Series B preferred stock that grants Tsantanis 49.99% of the voting power over Seanergy and to declassify the current board of directors, which Economou claims have cemented themselves at the company’s top and deprived other stockholders to vote. Tsantanis’ resignation, along with that of Christina Anagnostara and Elias Culucundis, has also been put forward as “an advisory non-binding proposal”. Athens-based Seanergy, which operates a fleet of 19 ships on a fully delivered basis, said its attempts to engage constructively with Economou had been unsuccessful. “He (Economou) has not engaged with us meaningfully or articulated any new ideas for the company, Seanergy said, adding that, on top of the lawsuit, he has now started a “costly and distracting” proxy contest. The Seanergy board comprises five directors, four of whom are independent. The company said it would review Economou’s nominees and proposals in due course. It remains to be seen how the saga at Seanergy will play out as boardroom battle looms. Previous moves by Economou on publicly listed companies, such as Genco, have resulted in bumping up the stock and him partly cashing in on the investment. The Oceanpal deal saw him take on an advisory role in the business in exchange for backing down from his usual proxy tactics. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsGreece