Opening of Trading Ceremony — Euronext Athens

Petros Pappas, Founder and Chief Executive Officer

16 September 2026

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today we are doing something that means a great deal to all of us at Star Bulk: we are opening our shares to the market of the country in which this company was built.

We came to Athens by choice. At €24.50 we did not seek the highest possible valuation. We left room for our new shareholders to gain.

Their response exceeded all expectations:

•Six times oversubscription, 656 million euros bids!

•one in every ten active retail investors in Greece chose to put their money into Star Bulk shares!

I want to thank the Hellenic Capital Market Commission and Euronext Athens, who supported an undertaking without precedent for the Greek market. The Joint Coordinators and Bookrunners, AXIA / Alpha Finance and the National Bank of Greece, the Underwriters — CrediaBank, Optima Bank, Pantelakis and Ambrosia — and our advisers.

I want to thank the Star Bulk team. Our people here in Athens, who worked nights and weekends through the summer for this day. Above all, however, I want to thank our new shareholders who trusted us and invested in our company.

From today on we will commit our efforts to four areas:

●to support the liquidity of our share in Athens from day one;

●to maintain the lowest possible operating costs on our ships showing our respect for our shareholders money;

●to always be shareholder friendly and engage in accretive actions whenever the opportunity arises

●to be completely transparent about the company and the shipping markets

And, never forget, shipping depends on the global economy, on geopolitical developments, and on the decisions of thousands of shipowners. None of us controls the market and I will not promise our shareholders what is not within our own reach. What I can promise however, is serious work, discipline, honesty and alignment with our shareholders’ interests.

Ladies and gentlemen,

what begins today is I hope something larger than us: a shipping ecosystem in the Greek capital market. My hope is that we will soon see the right shipping companies joining this effort, and a “maritime index” on Euronext Athens.

Twenty years ago we started with eight ships in the US. Today we are starting again with 145 ships in Athens.

Thank you.