The announcement of Blackstone’s planned takeover of Marine Max for almost US$1.5 billion is an interesting conclusion to the discussions, negotiations and boardroom battles we have seen over the past few months. The Marine Max board and shareholders almost doubled their money with the offer of US$53 per share on the table (recent share price was US$35.68, but spiked on the announcement to US$50-plus), including major equity investor Donerail, who has been disturbing the peace for some time, asking for the CEO to step down and ultimately trying to buy Marine Max.

However, when you look closely at the Blackstone deal, ignoring the myriad small-yacht dealerships across the USA, which is a market that has endured some relative declines, it is the combination of the superyacht stakes that are most interesting. Following Blackstone’s acquisition of Safe Harbor for US$5.6 billion 18 months ago, it became the world’s largest marina group, with a handful of US-based refit centres. This was followed by the acquisition of Monaco Marine, a network of seven refit and service centres in the Western Med. This in itself made Safe Harbor a formidable player in the superyacht space, and add into the mix the Marine Max superyacht portfolio and you now have IGY Marinas, one of the leading superyacht marina operators across the Caribbean and the Med, combined with brokerage and management companies in Fraser Yachts and Northrop & Johnson.

Will a mega-portfolio of superyacht services, including a major network of marinas, a growing network of refit shipyards (with a remit to explore further opportunities) and the two brokerage and yacht management power houses of Fraser and Northrop, change the industry for the good?

With several billion dollars invested across the yachting and superyacht sector, it is clear that Blackstone like our industry and perhaps can see a lot of opportunity to streamline and leverage all of the services into a joined-up strategy. Whoever controls the superyacht client from deal to delivery to lifecycle to home port will win the lion’s share of the billions of dollars of OPEX that flow through our industry. It will be an interesting saga to watch over the coming weeks and months, as this again puts the superyacht space on the financial market’s radar, and any fund with cash burning holes in their investor pockets will sit up and take note.

Will a mega-portfolio of superyacht services, including a major network of marinas, a growing network of refit shipyards (with a remit to explore further opportunities) and the two brokerage and yacht management power houses of Fraser and Northrop & Johnson, change the industry for the good? Is this market consolidation with an improvement of services and support or an opportunity to squeeze more cash out of the superyacht owners and control the relationships between all stakeholders? This acquisition will create the biggest conglomerate of superyacht services we have ever witnessed and it will be interesting to watch how the competitors react. After all, Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, the division behind the deal, are sitting on a cash pile of US$20 billion and adding another US$4 billion to that pile every quarter. So, if they, through Safe Harbor, continue their shopping spree, it would seem that anything is for sale – and affordable too.

Once this deal is completed, which I’m sure it will be, there’s no doubt that Brett McGill, Marine Max CEO, who has come under attack and scrutiny over the past year, will sleep well at night, as his 240,000-plus shares (approximately one per cent of the company) have just doubled in value to approximately to US$12.5 million.

Interesting times for the superyacht market.

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