ATHENS, Greece, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TOP Ships Inc. (Nasdaq: TOPS) announced today that on July 31, 2008, the United States District Court, Southern District of New York approved the proposed settlement in the securities complaints consolidated under the caption 'In Re: Top Tankers, Inc. Securities Litigation,' case no. 06-cv-13761. As previously announced, under the settlement the plaintiff, on behalf of members of the class who do not opt out, dismisses all claims against the Company with prejudice in exchange for a settlement payment of $1.2 million. The entire settlement payment will be covered by the Company's insurance policy.

The court's opinion stated that it viewed the plaintiff's case as 'thin' and the settlement 'a nuisance settlement in a de minimis amount.' The court also noted the absence of any objections by the class to the proposed settlement.

The court stated that, after the defendants' counsel filed its motion to dismiss the first complaint, plaintiff's lead counsel 'dropped nearly every serious (and scurrilous) allegation against defendants,' such as allegations about conflicts of interest, illegal dividends and self-dealing by the Company's CEO, Evangelos Pistiolis. Ultimately, the court found that plaintiff's lead counsel 'quickly settled the case for whatever it could get' and 'the pittance amount recovered makes a great deal of sense from defendant's perspective -- it is nuisance value, and no court would force a defendant to continue litigating to victory when such victory would be phyrric.' The lack of response by the class to the settlement and to plaintiff's lead counsel's request for attorneys' fees strongly suggested to the court that 'no one except Lead Counsel has the slightest interest in this action.'

The complete text of the court's opinion will be available on the Company's website at http://www.topships.org.

About TOP Ships Inc.

TOP Ships Inc., formerly known as TOP Tankers Inc., is an international provider of worldwide seaborne crude oil and petroleum products and drybulk transportation services. Upon delivery of the five Suezmaxes to their new owners the Company will operate a combined tanker and drybulk fleet as follows:

-- a fleet of 12 tankers, consisting of 4 double-hull Suezmax tankers and 8 double-hull Handymax tankers, with a total carrying capacity of approximately 1.0 million dwt, of which 86% are sister ships. Eight of the Company's 12 tankers will be on time charter contracts with an average term of two years with all of the time charters including profit sharing agreements above their base rates.