Police fear for health of kidnapped Panagopulos

Nigel Lowry and Paul Tugwell - Monday 12 January 2009

Pericles Panagopulos: founded Attica Group Pericles Panagopulos: founded Attica Group

A MASSIVE police hunt has been mounted by Greek police following the armed abduction of leading shipowner Pericles Panagopulos shortly after leaving his home early this morning. 

Mr Panagopulos’ chauffer-driven car was blocked by a jeep at a narrow point in the access road just 700 m from his house in the seaside Athens suburb of Kavouri. 

The driver’s window was smashed with the butt of a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle as three masked men forced the shipowner and his driver into another jeep. 

Mr Panagopulos’ driver, George Sardelis, was later released, hooded and handcuffed, near to the town of Koropi, east of Athens, while the burnt out remains of the hijack car were later found in the same area.

Mr Sardelis said that one of the men told the shipowner not to be afraid and that their objective was his money, local reports said. 

There has been no further information about any ransom demands but police have already indicated that they will want to keep a tight lid on developments as the case unfolds. 

A police spokesman, however, stated that there are concerns about the health of the 74-year-old shipowner who, after undergoing a major operation three years ago, was said to require daily pharmaceutical treatment. 

The abduction of one of the most well-known and admired senior members of Greece’s shipping fraternity has stunned the industry. 

The Hellenic Chamber of Shipping instantly cancelled a traditional new year ceremony it had scheduled for Wednesday lunchtime. The president of the country’s coastal ferry association, Apostolos Ventouris, said he was shocked by the news and expressed his solidarity with Mr Panagopulos and his family. 

Mr Panagopulos heads a parallel industry organisation, the Association of Greek Passenger Shipping Companies. 

Active in both passenger and dry bulk shipping, he is probably best known as the founder in the 1970s of Royal Cruise Line, which he eventually sold to Norwegians, and in the 1990s of Attica Group, which built up the Superfast Ferries and Blue Star Ferries fleets. 

He sold his controlling stake in Attica for about €285m ($380m) to Marfin Investment Group in mid-2007 and the ferry group has since relocated from the shipowner’s office building, also located in Koropi. 

He has continued to be active in dry bulk through family company Magna Marine. 

Mr Panagopulos received the Lloyd’s List/Propeller Club Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2007 Greek Shipping Awards. 

Immediate family includes his wife Katerina, son Alex and daughter Irini. 

The abduction appears to have been well planned in advance, according to Greek police. 

For years many Greek shipowners — together with industrialists and public officials — took stringent personal security precautions because of the activities of local urban terrorist groups. But the risk was perceived to have been greatly reduced after the deadly November 17 terrorist gang was broken in 2002.

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