Simply Abu Dhabi XXVII

6 5 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I Are you also investing in the maritime industry in Oman? Oman is a great place to have a large superyacht marina, so I’m trying to work with the government on that. I would like to start some kind of a marina, not so much as a business, but to promote the country. Oman has a huge maritime history. It is a bit like the Netherlands: we’re a kingdom that has traded with Africa, Asia, India and the Middle East. Do you think there is still a good inventory of boats on the market? I think the greatest competition on the market right now is second-hand boats. Oceanco doesn’t have the problem of competing with the second-hand market, but Turquoise has more challenges in that field. Turquoise has very competitive prices. Can you tell us about that? The cost of materials is the same whether you are building in the Netherlands or Turkey. The actual unit labour cost is lower in Turkey compared to Northern Europe. In both regions, a significant portion of the cost of the yacht is labour. Turkish builders tend to invest a lot more labour and time into building than perhaps builders in Southern Europe do. Certainly, some of the yachts produced in Turkey are on par with some of the builds in Europe. Do you have an exit plan? No, I enjoy working with the shipyards. Oceanco has been and is a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed it tremendously. I’ve enjoyed the designers, our industry colleagues and I’ve enjoyed the brokers. I’ve met a lot of interesting people that I might not have met in other businesses. My business model has never been to buy and sell companies. We’re not a private equity business who buys a company, builds it up, and then sells it. In a word, I have no thoughts of exiting this vibrant industry.