Princess Yachts' class doubles with Louis Vuitton parentage

Seems like a typical English-French Love Affair...

Princess Yachts, one of the world's finest and most popular name in boating - has been acquired by the the world's largest luxury conglomerate - Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy...better known as LVMH.


Bernard Arnault, the French luxury goods billionaire, is managed to add luxury motor yachts to his collection of handbags, watches, perfumes and champagnes.

Lastly, the L Capital had acquired another superior luxury British brand in the form of Aston Martin in Feb '07.

OFF-THE-BLOCK

Going at an estimated sum of £200 million, The Plymouth-based business has been acquired by a consortium by Mr Arnault: LVMH, the luxury goods company run by him; Groupe Arnault, his private investment vehicle; and L Capital, a private equity firm backed by Groupe Arnault and LVMH.

Sold by Graham Beck, a South African billionaire who made his fortune in coal, property and wine. Known as one of the world's leading race-horse breeders, with stud farms in South Africa and the United States.

He put the business up for sale about a year ago through Cavendish Corporate Finance, although he is understood to have rejected higher offers from parties planning to fund the purchase with debt.

PRINCESS

Princess Yachts was founded in 1965 as Marine Projects (Plymouth) Ltd to fit out and charter the Project 31, the first boat to be built at the company’s original factory facilities in Plymouth. It moved to its current purpose-built headquarters in 1997 and now distributes boats all over the world.


Princess Yachts was acquired by accident when he took over the Renwick Group in 1981. Under Mr Beck it has expanded to become one of Britain's biggest motorboat manufacturers.

LVMH

LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods group, is best known for its Louis Vuitton handbags, Tag Heuer watches and Moët & Chandon champagne.


The group a part of the CAC40 companies of France, it has around 60 sub-companies with 60,000 employees under its umbrella.

Aston Martin, Tag Heuer, Acqua di Parma, Hennessy, DKNY and more are some of the famous brands...

INDIA...

What this means to India?

Well if it didnt mean much, then we wouldnt be going into so many details. But surely expect a BIG push for Princess Yachts coming your way in the near future.

With LVMH being big about re-inventing their model portfolios from time to time so that they can be trendsetters, expect newer models being sold worldwide through a larger distribution channel. Read more...

Interview With Mr Vishal Chaudhry - Director Aquamarine

Below is an interview of Mr Vishal Chaudhry Driector of Aquamarine services who are the exclusive distributors of U.K based Princess Yachts in India.

From the commissions he makes to the prices of the yachts and even his future plans, all has been reveled in the interview.



Q: On whatever you sell, you pick up a commission from Princess on every sale?

A: We are the distributors for Princess Yacht in India and like all other distributorships around the world you do work on some sort of a commission basis based on the value of sale.

Q: Is it fairly significant commission?

A: Not really, because this is a new industry in India. A lot of people who are getting into it are doing it for the first time. You have to get them the incentive in terms of price.

Q: Are customers driving a hard bargain?

A: Yes all customers. People in India know the value that they want to spend on items like yacht and other luxury items.

Q: What sort of opportunity are you looking at? How many of them have already sold? What kind of orders do you have in the pipeline?

A: It’s looking exciting. We probably will have about five boats by the end of this year in Mumbai or Goa in a mix of different sizes.

Q: What’s the smallest size?

A: We start with the 42 ft and do two different types of models - a fly bridge and V-Class, which is an open boat. We go all the way up to 95 ft with almost 18 models in between almost every few feet.

Q: What about price tags?

A: Typically, when a 42 ft V-Class boat lands in India, we have a 35% duty on it, which would probably be in the Rs 2.75 crore region. It goes all the way up to 95 times factory price which is about 3.5-4 million pounds.

Q: Where is the demand coming from?

A: A large part of the demand at this point is out of Mumbai, primarily because they can use the boat the maximum within the harbour or go across to Alibaugh where they have their homes. Increasingly, we will find and are already finding people who want to keep boats in places like Goa, and Cochin. This could be people who are not staying there but could be even from Delhi or Hyderabad who have homes there and want to keep a boat to just add to their lifestyle.

Q: You are also looking at a fractional ownership model?

A: A fractional ownership model works well in a new market. We are exploring that at this point primarily because it gives people an opportunity to buy at just a fraction of the cost even though it gives them the ownership and residual value on the boat as and when its sold. It allows them to use it for the amount of time that they want and just pay for a fraction of the annual maintenance cost that would normally be on a boat.

Q: What’s been the biggest challenge for you to get this up and running because as you said it’s a very nascent and niche market in India?

A: Because India is a new market, the brand needs to get established, people need to know what Princess brand stands for and the quality.

Q: How are you doing that?

A: A lot of it is actually getting people to experience the product. During the boat show we have been able to get a lot of people on boat.


Q: Where have you been able to get the resources? How will you fund all your businesses?

A: We have largely done a mix with partners’ private equity or our own funds that we been able to bring into the businesses. We started really small. Even the restaurant we started was a fairly small venture. It wasn’t as capital intensive as it is probably today.


Q: What is the next one on the radar?

A: I can’t say yet. But it definitely will be within the same sort of space that I am comfortable operating in.
Source - Moneycontrol.com Read more...