Greek owner of drybulk carriers DryShips Inc. has sold five of its Panamax vessels for an aggregate price of US$29.4m.

Namely, two Panamax vessels Amalfi and Samatan, along with their associated bank debt, were sold to entities controlled by the company's Chairman and CEO George Economou.

As part of the transaction, the company inked an agreement to increase its secured revolving facility provided by an entity controlled by George Economou.

The revolver was amended to increase the maximum available amount by US$5m to US$75m and to give DryShips an option to convert US$7.5m of the outstanding balance to shares of its common stock within 365 days. Following this transaction, the outstanding balance under the revolver will stand at US$69.4m.

The company said that the transaction was approved by the independent members of its Board of Directors on the basis of vessel valuations and a fairness opinion.

The remaining three Panamax vessels from the batch, Ocean Crystal, Sonoma and Sorrento, were sold to un-affiliated buyers.

Dryships said that all of the gross proceeds from the sales will be used to pay down their respective loan facilities. The vessels are scheduled to be delivered to their new owners during November 2016.

DryShips owns a fleet of 16 Panamax drybulk carriers with a combined deadweight tonnage of some 1.2 million tons, and 6 offshore supply vessels, comprised of 2 platform supply and 4 oil spill recovery vessels.