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Sunseeker secures shareholder funding for next five years
Model range to jump from 11 to 20 by 2021 by David Robinson ibinews.com
Sunseeker International’s recently appointed CEO, Andrea Frabetti, confirmed at the company’s Cannes Yachting Festival press conference that its Chinese majority shareholder, Dalian Wanda, has committed £50m for new product development between 2019 and 2024.
Between 2019 and 2022, Sunseeker will spend between £10m and £15m a year on designing and launching new models. This programme will see the current 11 models in the Sunseeker range jump to 20 by 2021. Frabetti, who was appointed Sunseeker’s CTO in January 2019 and CEO in June 2019, indicated that eight new models will be launched over the next 12 months and work on another six is in hand for 2021.
This programme will comprise the following:
Performance category: The Superhawk 52 and Superhawk 65 will come in 2021 to add to the Hawk 38 launched this year
Predators: Following in the wake of the Predator 74 launch last year are the Predator 60 EVO launching at Southampton 2019, the Predator 55 EVO in 2020, and the 65 Predator in 2021
Sport Yacht: Invented by Sunseeker, the 65 Sport Yacht will be launched in 2020 and the 86 Sport Yacht in 2021, adding to the 74 Sport Yacht launched last year
Manhattans: The Manhattan 55 is set for a 2020 launch with the Manhattan 68 for Q1 2020
Yachts: Sunseeker is reintroducing its Yachts range with five new models by 2021. These are the all-new 86 Yacht, 87 Yacht and 87 Enclosed Flybridge Yacht in 2020, with the 78 Yacht and 100 Yacht joining them in 2021.
Superyachts: Replacing the Sunseeker 131 superyacht will be the 133 Superyacht in 2020 and the 161 Superyacht in 2021
Frabetti confirmed Sunseeker’s new management structure with the new Strategic Committee comprising himself as CEO and CTO; Mike McMillan as CFO, IT and Legal; and Michael Straughan as COO, HR and HS. This will be supported by the Executive Committee made up of Sean Robertson as sales and marketing director and Adrian Powell as company secretary and general counsel.
Sunseeker recently confirmed that its audited accounts for the year ended December 2018 showed substantial growth in gross margins and retained profit. Profits grew from £1.1m in 2017 to £6.6m in 2018, a substantial £5.5m increase. Pure boat operations – excluding other operating income – increased by almost £10m year-on-year. Underlying EBITDA was over £13m for 2018, more than doubling the £5.9m of EBITDA recorded in 2017. Overall group (Sunseeker International Holdings Ltd) revenue was £299.8m in 2018, with gross margins increasing by 39% (£9.8m) from £25.5m in 2017 to £35.3m in 2018.