According to a report by TradeWinds, Greece's major commercial bank Piraeus Bank is taking legal action to recover approximately $21.45 million in outstanding loans from the registered owners of two Panamax bulk carriers owned by Kyla Shipping & Trading, a company led by Nikolaos Livanos.

The case involves two bulk carriers over 20 years old—the 76,600-dwt "Pantazis L" (built 2003) and the 76,500-dwt "Kalliopi L" (built 2001), held respectively by the Liberian single-vessel companies Panship Ltd and Kallishop Ltd.

According to estimates from shipping data provider VesselsValue, the current market value of "Pantazis L" is about $8.8 million and "Kalliopi L" about $7.3 million, totalling only $16.1 million—far below the bank's claimed outstanding mortgage balance of $21.45 million. During the shipping super-cycle from 2004 to 2008 when they were acquired, the combined value of the two vessels reached as high as approximately $95.5 million. To date, their market value has shrunk by about $79.4 million, a decline of 83%. The loan agreements for the two ships were restructured and signed in September 2013 following the financial crisis, but as the vessels aged and the bulk carrier market continued to weaken, the collateral value became seriously insufficient, eventually triggering the dispute.

The immediate trigger for the dispute was the arrest of "Pantazis L". On 23 July, the vessel was detained by the Singapore High Court while calling at Singapore, with the arrest warrant applied for by Piraeus Bank on the same day. The bank claims that the borrowers failed to repay the balloon payment due under the loan agreements as scheduled.

Voyage data shows that prior to the arrest, the vessel was en route from Kandla, India, to Yeosu, South Korea, with an intermediate stop in Singapore. The rest of Kyla's fleet continues to operate normally; among them, the sistership "Kalliopi F" is sailing from Bahia Blanca, Argentina, to Port Klang, Malaysia, with an expected arrival on 13 August, and has not been visibly affected.

Notably, this is not Nikolaos Livanos's first encounter with bank debt recovery litigation. Livanos is a distant cousin of Greek shipping magnate Peter G. Livanos. Kyla Shipping & Trading Corp, established in 2003, is a Greece-based integrated ship management company that currently manages 11 bulk carriers with a total capacity of approximately 1.17 million dwt. As commercial manager and ISM manager, the company's vessels are typically owned by independent single-vessel companies.

In 2020, the Commercial and Property Court of England and Wales ruled in favour of DVB Bank and Nord/LB in their lawsuit against Kyla's affiliated companies Vega Marine and Fortuneship, supporting the banks' claim for nearly $12 million in unpaid debts. At that time, Livanos had provided personal guarantees for those two loans, and the court ultimately held him liable for repayment. Whether Piraeus Bank's current recovery action will end in a similar outcome, and what will ultimately become of the two ageing bulk carriers, remains to be seen as legal proceedings continue.