Nordea Loan News

ATHENS, GREECE – April 29, 2011 - DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) (the “Company” or “DryShips”), a global provider of marine transportation services for drybulk and petroleum cargoes and off-shore contract drilling oil services, announced the signing, by its majority-owned subsidiary Ocean Rig UDW Inc. (“Ocean Rig”), of the previously announced restructuring of its $1.1 billion Secured Term Loan Facility led by Deutsche Bank. Ocean Rig exercised two newbuilding options to construct Ultra Deepwater Drillships at Samsung Heavy Industries.

Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd (NYSE: EXM), an owner and operator of dry bulk carriers and an international provider of worldwide seaborne transportation services for dry bulk cargoes, announced its operating and financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures discussed above is included in a subsequent section of this release. Pavlos Kanellopoulos, Chief Financial Officer of Excel, stated, “We are pleased to report yet another profitable quarter with increased cash flow generation. We believe that our balanced fleet deployment strategy has allowed us to take advantage of the improving dry bulk market conditions and has resulted in increased EBITDA and operating cash flow compared to the respective period of last year.

Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd (NYSE: EXM), an owner and operator of dry bulk carriers and a provider of worldwide seaborne transportation services for dry bulk cargoes, announced its operating and financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009. •    Net income was $118.0 million or $2.57 per weighted average diluted share compared to $35.1 million or $1.76 per weighted average diluted share in the first quarter of 2008, an increase of approximately 236.2%. The results for the first quarter of 2009 include a non-cash item of $6.7 million relating to the unrealized gain from the valuation of interest rate swaps and $0.1 million gain on sale of a vessel.