Dry bulk shipping specialist Diana Shipping Ltd. intends to distribute 80% of the shares it owns in its partially owned box carrier Diana Containerships Inc. of which it currently owns approximately 55% of the issued and outstanding common stock. This equates to a distribution of 2,667,066 shares by the aggregate number of issued and outstanding shares of common stock held by Diana Shipping on the 3rd January 2011.

As of the 21st December Diana Shipping had outstanding 81,955,813 common shares, which would have resulted in the distribution of 0.0325 shares of common stock of Diana Containerships for every one (1) share of common stock of Diana Shipping. Due to the nature of the distribution the New York Stock Exchange is expected to establish the ex-dividend date as January 19, 2011. Immediately following the distribution, Diana Shipping's shareholders will own directly approximately 44% of Diana Containerships.

Diana Containerships has applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market. Diana Containerships common stock is expected to begin trading on a "when-issued" basis on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "DCIXV" beginning on or around January 3, 2011. Diana Containerships common stock is expected to begin "regular-way" trading on January 19, 2011 under the symbol "DCIX".