Matthews in bid to buy back Oyster
ounder and former owner
of Oyster Yachts, Richard
Matthews, is bidding to buy back
the luxury yacht builder, which he sold
to Balmoral Capital in 2008 for around
£70m. Oyster went under in January this
year when the company’s management
made a shock announcement that it no
longer had financial support to trade.
Matthews, who went on to set up
Gunfleet yachts, confirmed that he and
a group of other investors would bid
to buy company assets. His is one of
45 expressions of interest received by
administrators KPMG Restructuring.
Matthews says his interest is in
“reinvigorating the brand” and recreating
“an all-British run and British-based
business”.
Oyster went under suddenly and
unexpectedly, not least to those with
yachts in build and some 380 employees.
On the afternoon on 5 February
staff working at Oyster’s UK sites in
Southampton, Wroxham and Ipswich
were called to a meeting and handed a
statement from the management.
It explained that Oyster was at risk
of being ‘unable to continue to provide
work for all its employees at all locations
and that it is likely that it will have to
make all of its employees redundant.Britain’s Big Builder went under in January. elaine Bunting inVestigates HOw it MigHt Be saVed
The company has decided to close all
operations today (and for the immediate
future) to prevent or minimise all loss to
employees and all other creditors’.Unbelievable news
Within the hour, builders at the
company’s leased fit-out yard, SYS in
Southampton, had taken their tools
and left, and the news was out. When
it filtered out on social media, some
dismissed it as ‘fake news’.
‘No – 110% true, I’ve just lost my job,’
responded one employee. ‘We had a pay
rise recently and all seemed good. This is
very sudden.’
Coming on the heels of the liquidation
of nearby Green Marine last October, it
sent shockwaves through the wider UKmarine industry. How could this happen?
The big British luxury builder was,
outwardly, a success story, with a
collection of recent new launches and
more in the pipeline. Its new 745 was
the largest yacht exhibited at Europe’s
biggest boat show, boot Düsseldorf, in
January, towering over nearby rivals,
and the company issued a press release
boasting of a £80 million order book and
a ‘positive outlook for 2018 and 2019’.
It had 26 contracts for new yachts with
a net order book value of £26m: five new
yachts in commissioning; 11 in fit-out,
including the company’s new Oyster 118
superyacht due for launch in May; two in
moulding and eight new builds on order,
including a second Oyster 118.Cash ran out
Quite simply, the cash ran out. HTP
Investments, the Dutch private equity
partners that provided a loan of
approximately £15m to buy Oyster in
2012, decided on 26 January 2018 not
to continue to financially support the
company. With payroll due on 31 January,
Oyster was unable to continue trading.
There had been considerable capital
expenditure in developing and launching
new models – six entirely new models
since 2008 and five modified models, twoF
Richard Matthews
founded Oyster
Yachts and sold it
for £70m in 2008on the wind