Marine Max purchases Fraser Yacht Group from Azimut Benetti

I read today that Marine Max has just completed a deal to acquire Fraser Yachts operations in the U.S. and Europe. This will certainly have Marine Max positioned well in the mega yacht market for years to come with the Benetti new build section and hopefully will bring their (Marine Max's) reputation up by being associated with this fine long standing brokerage, management, charter firm. This will be interesting to watch over the next few years.

MJM makes a quality vessel in the overnight / day boat size range. I had a private tour of their production facilities in Boston a couple of years ago and was impressed with the employee's "all in mentality " for quality and was pleasantly surprised in the Q & A process & rigorous sea trials and data collection on each hull with new owner driven options that differed from the previous delivered unit . This company takes quality to the next level and constantly makes adjustments to meet owners wishes and demands for a production builder.

In an on line article today the merger between the two was deemed "The Odd Couple" Very interesting read from both CEO's perspective as to what is expected from the new marriage and why Azimut Benetti sold to Marine Max . I naturally assumed that the Benetti line being referred to was the "Sail Division" or the smaller LOA vessels but its not. Its the whole Benetti line up to 320 meters. Marine Max says that they have a couple of spec vessels being built for the boat show circuit so this should be very interesting to see the cross pollination of the two.

From an engineering standpoint J you are correct. Benetti's mechanical, electrical and plumbing installations leave quite a bit to be desired compared to Northern European builders but the interior joinery and stone work are often outsourced to some of the finest furniture makers and craftsman in Europe so your generalization is off point besides the fact that there aren't any 100 million dollar Muts floating around out there.

Benetti has been in the business of building commercial vessels and yachts for 146 years so the "lip stick" only goes so far or high net worth individuals wouldn't sign new build contracts nor purchase these vessels on the used market if they thought that they weren't getting value for their money. The vast majority if not all Italian builders are priced well below their Northern European counterparts per meter and that's where some yachtsman find their sweet spot financially in this sector. If you've never worked on one as an engineer than any judgment in the systems arena would be a bit nebulous at this juncture. Lurssen or Feadship they're not but they are a whole lot of yacht for the money and cant be compared to an Azimut in any way shape or form.