Creditors of Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd. say that bondholders are preparing a rival turnaround plan for the shipping company, which has pledged itself to a bank-backed chapter 11 plan, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Excel’s proposed plan is designed to preserve the control of owner Gabriel Panayotides while leaving convertible bondholders who are owed $100 million and unsecured creditors with a slim and chancy recovery. Members of Excel’s unsecured creditors’ committee have protested Excel’s bid to lock in senior lender control by way of bankruptcy financing and said in court filings that they would prefer to wait to see what the bondholders propose to do for them.
