Financial_Times_Asia_-_April_6_2020

18 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Monday 6 April 2020

In the space of two days last week, I
spoke to three business people who
were all wrestling with the same
coronavirus conundrum.
Each had been slowly getting to
grips with nervous investors or
dwindling customers or far-flung
teams of work-from-home colleagues.
But none had conquered one group of
incorrigible reprobates who were
making life a misery: parents who
refused to stay at home.
“It’s unbelievable,” muttered one
manager whose 80-something father
lives alone in a distant town and insists
on going out for the paper each day.
“He just won’t listen.”
This man had been in fraught talks
with middle-aged siblings trying to
work out what to do. Friends in
London have been doing the same.
I cannot hear enough of this stuff. My
mother, also in her eighties, has been
going to the supermarket, the post
office and who knows where else in her
small town in Australia.
“I’m being very careful,” she told me
the other night on FaceTime, as I
struggled to stop myself shrieking:
“Have you not heard of deliveries?”
This generational role reversal is
only one of the jolting shifts unleashed

by the coronavirus crisis — and hardly

the most dire. All the employed people

I was speaking to last week still had

their jobs. None was trying to corral

young children along with a parent.

And it is not as if the worrying only

goes one way, as my mother constantly

reminds me.

Yet the wrenching toll this pandemic

is taking on the elderly is only

beginning to be felt. Researchers

predict that people aged over 70 will

account for 63 per cent of Covid-

deaths in a country such as Australia,

even though they make up just 11 per

cent of the population there.

I was thinking about those numbers

the other day when a friend sent a rude

but rather good video clip made by a

British comedian called Mitch Benn.

Dressed up as a wartime recruiter, he

reminded his locked-down

compatriots that in their time of

national crisis they were being called

upon to slob around on the sofa and

watch Netflix.

New Zealand’s police force has

taken up this theme with admirable

gusto. On its Facebook page it has

posted a notice saying that for the

first time in history “we can save the

human race by lying in front of the

TV and doing nothing. Let’s not screw

this up.”

I applaud both efforts. They are

funny, well-intentioned and I hope

effective. Yet the truth is that we are

being asked to do a lot more than lie

about at home in our pyjamas.

Grandparents who are acutely aware

of their limited time on the planet are

being asked to stay away from their

grandchildren for an unknowable

length of time.

Older people who live on their own

are being told to shun the cafés and golf

games that have offered years of

cheering company.

People of all ages are witnessing

events that would have been

unimaginable only a few short weeks

ago.

As I write this, my London street has

erupted with the almost medieval

sound of people leaning out of their

windows to bang their saucepans and

cheer the healthcare workers who

stand between us and disaster.

Meanwhile, headlines scrolling across

the television screen show the

staggering number of people who have

suddenly been thrown out of work

across the world.

In my immediate family, three

people lost their jobs within days last

month. Others wait in dread and all of

us know it could be far worse.

As travel chaos spread across the

world two weeks ago, a friend who

lives abroad discovered his mother had

just been taken to hospital in London,

for a problem unrelated to Covid-19.

He did not manage to make it back

before she died.

At the same time, another friend was

trying to help an Italian man who was

stranded in Peru just as his parents in

Lombardy were struck by Covid-19.

They died two days apart.

Those stories are a reminder of

something I suspect a lot of us are

rediscovering.

However stubborn and maddening

and difficult our parents may be, the

time we have with them should never

be taken for granted.

[email protected]

“The truth is that

we are being asked to

do a lot more than

lie about at home

in our pyjamas”

Taking care

of our family

business is the

priority now

CROSSWORD

No. 16,444 Set by ARMONIE

  

 



 





 



 

 



 

 

JOTTER PAD

ACROSS

1 Rascal set off for the OTC (6)

4 Is in Paris holding shipment of

delicacy (8)

9 Agree condition at the time of

despatch (6)

10 Rice came cooked in dessert

(3,5)

12 Entice student to the river (4)

13 Displays cereal bowls (10)

15 Determined to keep prisoner

blowing hot and cold (12)

18 Tenor appears in mocking

novel (3,9)

21 Sparkling drink gets fragrance

after a little work (10)

22 Look over castle (4)

24 Dissident keeps motorway

sealed (8)

25 Scoundrel in spy organisation

is a six-footer (6)

26 Despite that has affair with

bird (4,4)

27 Church set in a hollow is

respectable (6)

DOWN

1 Clergyman has tea with Frank

(8)

2 Neighbourhood detective’s

scrupulous (8)

3 Acting award for knight in

play (4)

5 Support heavyweight ace?

That’s matchless! (6,2,4)

6 Sales manager organised a

nice route (10)

7 Poet’s ego disturbed by article

(6)

8 Most boring amateur seen

during exam (6)

11 Produce system giving a

better game (5,7)

14 Popular Dutch sealant for

consideration (10)

16 Terrier publicised beer (8)

17 Bomb factory of vegetable

producer (8)

19 Girl making concession having

to hurry (6)

20 Dramatist introduces a

monarch to cheese (6)

23 Tell stories about lots of

parasites (4)

The waiting game

How the retail shutdown is

teaching us all to queue online

ZCOMPANIES & MARKETS

Pilita Clark

Business Life

Volunteers take food to

the elderly at home,

but not all are willing

to stay inside— Getty

         

Experiential

luxury

Personal

luxury

Luxury

yachts market

Downturn Rebound

Index (  )

Luxury yacht sales struggled

after 



















Superyachts and their owners

Reported value (bn)

Sources: Deloitte; FT data

History Supreme

Robert Kuok

Eclipse

Roman Abramovich

Rising Sun David Geen

Serene Mohammed

bin Salman

Motor Yacht A Andrey

Melnichenko

Dubai Mohammed bin

Rashid

     

Owner’s name in blue beneath bar

{ }

Self-isolation aboard a $590m

superyacht furnished with a cinema and

wine cellar sounds a tolerable — even

pleasant — experience. When billionaire

David Geffen posted his view of the

Caribbean sunset on Instagram, not all

of his 84,000 followers offered

commiserations.

Fellow billionaires have joined the

DreamWorks Pictures co-founder in

isolating — and even home schooling

— on superyachts for months. For

those without their own superyacht, a

charter costs an average $150,000 a

week. This gust of demand filling the

industry’s sails may be the last before a

prolonged slump.

The pandemic has left the travel

industry as a whole — from airlines to

cruise ships — fighting for survival.

Luxury travel, including private jets and

yachts, is an exception as the wealthy

flee to safer places. Charter companies

remain open for business. The

number of yachts in the US surged

last month. Business in the Bahamas

and the Caribbean has taken only a

limited hit.

One of the reasons is that superyacht

marinas have largely remained open. A

coronavirus disaster on the Diamond

Princess cruise ship has closed most

cruise ports. Nine cruise ships carrying

about 8,000 passengers are still

stranded at sea.

Cruise ships are riskily crowded

places, as are the ports they

frequent. PortMiami in Florida, the

world’s busiest, has up to 50,

passengers passing through daily. In

contrast, yacht marinas have just a

handful of families travelling through

them on any given day. Superyachts

can set to sea with a minimal crew,

making them ideal for social distancing.

Yet these months may be the last of

the good times for the industry. After

the two stock market crashes in 1929

and 2008, yacht sales plunged. Prices

more than halved. Unfinished orders

faced mass cancellations as banks

stopped financing yachts and

shipyards.

Superyachts are depreciating assets

with steep operating costs. Fuel,

insurance and dockage fees are about

$1m a year. When maintenance and

crew salaries are included, operational

costs come out to about a 10th of the

price of the yacht. Those are too high to

support a profitable charter business in

a sharp downturn. They also limit the

second-hand market. You may be able

to dodge coronavirus aboard a

superyacht. But you cannot avoid the

hit it delivers to asset values.

Superyachts: sailing

into the doldrums

APRIL 6 2020 Section:Features Time: 5/4/2020 - 17: 46 User: jeremy.wright Page Name: 1BACK, Part,Page,Edition: ASI, 18, 1