UPDATE, AUGUST 2, 2016: The Port Authority Committee of Ancona, Italy, has approved a 30-year lease of the ISA Yachts land for Palumbo Group. This, following court approval on June 30 for the brand and assets acquisition. Palumbo Group has also announced that it will continue using the ISA Yachts brand.
Read on for our original article.
Palumbo Group, which builds the Columbus Yachts brand, has added another shipyard to its growing list of locales. The Italian firm is the victor in the bidding war for fellow Italian yacht yard ISA Yachts.
ISA Yachts, you may recall, filed for protection against its creditors in May 2015, to avoid bankruptcy. It opened its doors in 2001 and had delivered a few dozen megayachts from 98 to 217 feet (30 to 66 meters) prior to last year. ISA Yachts had also not signed a megayacht contract since early 2014. According to Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper, ISA had €40 million (nearly $45 million) in debt and laid off about 100 employees in August 2015. It then went into liquidation.
The Court of Ancona solicited bids for ISA Yachts’ name, four sheds, and unfinished projects a few months later. Palumbo Group was one of 17 companies that expressed interest, Il Sole 24 Ore reported. Indeed, in January of this year, Wider Yachts announced its bid. Another bidder: Frittelli Maritime, a fellow Ancona-based company specializing in warehousing, managing passenger and cargo ships, and more. The ISA Yachts workers’ union, however, rejected Frittelli Maritime’s proposal in May, according to multiple reports. An agreement with the unions was a key condition for acquisition, as was a lease on the property. (ISA Yachts did not own the docks where it operated.)
The Court of Ancona called for a second round for tenders following the collapse of negotiations with Frittelli Maritime. Those bids were due on June 28. This, despite the workers union already having reached an agreement with Palumbo Group. The court decided that a true auction should occur instead.
Today, Palumbo Group confirmed that the Court of Ancona accepted its offer. “While awaiting the finalization of the transfer, Palumbo Group is preparing all that is necessary for the reopening of the shipyard in Ancona and the go-ahead for all production and collateral activities at the aforementioned site,” according to a statement. When we requested more details from a Palumbo spokesperson, we were informed, “unfortunately we are not in the position at this time to disclose further info on ISA’s acquisition nor plans involved with the production.” The Times of Malta, however, reports that its bid was worth €11 million (about $12.3 million). It also quotes CEO Giuseppe Palumbo as saying, “Acquiring this historic shipyard is a great opportunity for our group, but more importantly we have decided to save the jobs of all 101 workers, whose livelihood has been in the balance for the past year.”
Giuseppe Palumbo also tells the paper that the ISA Yachts yard “enables us to build three to four of these luxury megayachts at one go.” Until now, only one Columbus Yachts new-build project fit in its Naples shipyard. (Palumbo has additional megayacht facilities in Marseilles, France and Malta, though they are for refits.)
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