Diana Shipping to Buy New-Building Kamsarmax Dry Bulk Carrier

Diana Shipping Inc.

, a global shipping company specializing in the ownership and operation of dry bulk vessels, announced that on December 20, 2012 it signed, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, a Memorandum of Agreement to acquire a new-building Kamsarmax dry bulk carrier of 82,131 dwt, built by Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Japan, from an unaffiliated third party seller for a purchase price of US$26.5 million. The vessel, to be named "Myrto", is expected to be delivered to the Company by the sellers at the end of January 2013. Separately, the Company also announced that yesterday it signed, through two separate wholly owned subsidiaries, a term loan facility with Nordea Bank Finland Plc, London Branch, and today completed the drawdown of US$20 million. The purpose of this facility is to partially finance the acquisition costs of the two newly built Post-Panamax dry bulk carriers, the m/v "Amphitrite" and m/v "Polymnia", which were delivered to the Company on August 14, 2012 and November 20, 2012, respectively.