Exhibit 2
NEWS RELEASE for April 15, 2008
EXCEL ANNOUNCES THE COMPLETION OF MERGER WITH QUINTANA
ATHENS, GREECE – April 15, 2008 – Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd. (NYSE: EXM) announced today that it
completed its acquisition of Quintana Maritime Limited. As a result of the merger, Quintana will operate as a
wholly owned subsidiary of Excel under the name Bird Acquisition Corp. Under the terms of the merger
agreement, each issued and outstanding share of Quintana common stock was converted into the right to receive
(i) $13.00 in cash and (ii) 0.3979 Excel Class A common shares.
The merger creates a combined company that operates a fleet of 47 vessels with a total carrying capacity of
approximately 3.7 million DWT and an average age of approximately 8 years. The combined company will be
one of the largest dry bulk shipping companies in the industry and will operate the largest dry bulk fleet by DWT
of any shipping company listed in the U.S.
Gabriel Panayotides, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Excel, said “We are pleased to announce the
completion of our combination with Quintana today. Our goal is to create one of the world’s premier dry bulk
shipping companies and this transaction is an important step towards achieving that goal. We believe Quintana
offers an extremely attractive and young fleet, strong relationships with its customers, and skilled and
knowledgeable management. We intend to fully integrate Quintana’s fleet, systems and management capability
into our organization, providing our customers with a large and diverse fleet to serve all their needs efficiently. We
welcome Stamatis Molaris to the role of our Chief Executive Officer and to our Board of
Directors. We also welcome Hans Mende, Corbin Robertson III and Paul Cornell to our Board of Directors.
We believe the new directors will provide valuable business experience to our Board, including significant
experience relating to the shipping industry. We look forward to worki