Chief operating officer Kostas Koutsoubelis and chief financial officer Pavlos Kanellopoulos will run the company in a dual leadership structure, with no immediate plans to fill the vacant CEO seat.

TradeWinds revealed exclusively on Wednesday that the US private equity giant had removed Panayotides, following a bankruptcy restructuring that had seen his 55% stake slashed to 8.7%.

A statement from Excel directors confirmed the “departure” on Thursday.

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