Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-05-27)

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T

here’s a method to selling a superyacht, and for

Hong Kong boat broker Eric Noyel, it hasn’t been

working. At least not with the Chinese.

You start, of course, with a very big boat. It

doesn’t have to be the yacht you’re trying to unload. One

evening in January, Noyel uses a 79-foot vessel he partly owns

to wow would-be buyers. Then, like he did, you line up a few

deep- pocketed prospects, including, in this case, the handler

of the rare Chinese-born mogul who already owns a yacht and

is said to be in the market for something bigger. Finally, you

pile on the extravagances. Noyel’s team at Asia Marine Yacht

Services Ltd. recruited a harpist to pluck gentle melodies

during a seven-course meal prepared by an onboard chef,

along with a French sommelier to suggest wine pairings. But

the night didn’t end in a sale.

Finding takers for even a modest-size superyacht has

proved almost impossible in China. There are only three

known Chinese owners of the top 200 biggest yachts tracked

by publisher Boat International Media Ltd. China has minted

more billionaires in the past decade than any other country,

and they know how to spend as well as any Russian oligarch

or Silicon Valley startup founder. They’ve bought the private

art collections, sports teams, and golf courses expected of

the billionaire class. But not big boats. Noyel isn’t even sure

if Chinese billionaires know what to do with one. “There are

only a few who properly use their boats in Asia to tour globally

and autonomously,” he says—in case there was a question about

what one is supposed to do with one’s superyacht.

A

ny yacht that measures at least 24 meters (79 feet)

and has a professional crew is considered a

superyacht, but that’s modest by the standards

of those who dock in Monaco or Capri. Oracle

Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison has a basketball court on his

288-foot craft—and a motorboat ready to retrieve balls that

bounce overboard. British investor Joe Lewis hangs a $70 mil-

lion Francis Bacon triptych aboard his 321-foot yacht. Prices

can range wildly, from a few million bucks for a smaller used

Bloomberg Businessweek

WHERETHEMONEYIS

May27, 2019

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