Groupe Bénéteau and PPF finalise investment in Dream Yacht Group
Groupe Bénéteau and central Europe private financial company PPF Group have taken control and finalised their investment in Dream Yacht Group through a joint venture providing €60 million in new equity (60 per cent owned by PPF and 40 per cent owned by Groupe Bénéteau).
Together, the two new shareholders will hold 87 per cent of the capital. The remaining 13 per cent is held by Loïc Bonnet, founder and CEO of Dream Yacht Group, the management and investment fund NextStage, which is reinvesting €2.6 millions euros, and the industrial company Fountaine-Pajot.
The capital increase meets the financing needs set out in the business plan that supports the Group’s long-term strategy, which it says aims to strengthen its position as a leader in the fast-expanding sector of nautical tourism, boat rental with or without crew and catamaran cruising.
In response to the popularity of the charter model, Dream Yacht Group is opening up new opportunities for the acquisition of sailing yachts, with private investors who wish to benefit from a system of ownership under rental management. More than 265 new sailboats, 100% French made (70 per cent catamarans and 30 per cent monohulls) could join Dream Yacht Group’s fleet in the next two years.
In July, Groupe Bénéteau announced a revised forecast for 2021 and major acquisitions in the charter, boat club and marina markets, totalling $40 million.
Dream Yacht Group’s model offers its clients the possibility to rent sailing boats in the most beautiful places in the world. This offer, which provides days and weeks of sailing, with or without a skipper, is a renewed success this summer, the beginning of post-covid crisis recovery in a more appeased post-crisis environment. Bookings have broken records and occupancy rates have been at their highest level all season and remain so today.
Loïc Bonnet, CEO and founder of Dream Yacht Group, explains: “With the entry into our capital of two global players, that combine very high expertise in industry and finance, to the benefit of our strategy, Dream Yacht Group secures a solid financial platform to accelerate recovery. Our priority will be to meet the demand of a fast-growing clientele wishing to sail without constraints and to intensify the development of our digitalization”.
The investing alliance combines the support of a financial investor with €40 billion under management that leverages digital transformation in its shareholdings in order to consolidate the fragmented sailboat charter market on a global scale and the desire of a major manufacturer in the marine sector to diversify into services.
