Royal Denship, the Danish builder behind Big Roi, Princess Mariana, and other megayachts among the largest in the world, has declared bankruptcy.
About 100 employees are being laid off, according to published reports. The bankruptcy court in Aarhus, where Royal Denship was headquartered, made the declaration official on April 3. The yard’s Web site indicates that court-appointed lawyers are now trustees and provides their contact information for clients.
The daily newspaper Borsen quotes Lars Skytte Jorgensen, CEO of Royal Denship, as saying a combination of cancelled orders and clients failing to pay on time led to the decision. The same newspaper just last fall quoted him and Peter Johansen, the yard’s owner, as saying they had a full order book.
Royal Denship isn’t the only yard recently affected by the slumping economy. The Ferretti Group is undergoing a debt restructuring to ensure its future, and Rodriguez Group, which reported a loss of €47.6 million (about $64.4 million) last year, opted last month for Safeguard, a French insolvency regime that allows a company to continue operating and to withhold paying its outstanding liabilities until it works out a repayment schedule with banks. And just last week, Royal Huisman announced the cancellation of Gitana and the Windjammer project, both of which were anticipated for delivery in 2011. (Other contracts remain unaffected.)
Thankfully not all superyacht businesses are laying off staff or seeing clients back out of deals, however. Trinity Yachts, for example, is hiring engineers, welders, drafters, and others at both of its facilities. Capt. Mark Drewelow, head of C2C, a West Coast-based support company, told me just last month that his firm is incredibly busy and might even add staff this year. And Westport Shipyards experienced its best ever Palm Beach Boat Show in March. Other yards that had owners suspend contracts are meeting with clients interested in stepping in, and some designers are additionally filling requests for proposals.
Is the economic downturn over? No. But perhaps things aren’t as dire as they may have seemed, either.
Leave a Reply