Excel talks to bankers

摘要

Excel Maritime Carriers, the Athens-based and US-listed dry bulk shipping company, has postponed publication of its 2008 result to negotiate waivers of certain financial covenants, A shipping analyst based in New York expects the bankers and the company to reach an agreement.rnThe year has started badly for Excel, whose CEO Stamatis Molaris stepped down on 23 February. Five days earlier, Excel had said a blank cheque company called Oceanaut would be liquidated and Excel would suffer a $6M loss in the process. In the same week, the charterers of three ships unilaterally halved the rate of the long-term contacts, whkh Excel said would reduce its revenue by $107M. Dahlman Rose analyst Omar Nokta believes that counterparty defaults are also exposing Excel to possible breaches of its interest coverage ratio and net debt-to-EBITDA covenants.