CVC sells marina business for more than €1bn as yacht market booms
French private equity firm InfraVia’s purchase of D-Marin is latest in a flurry of investments in sector
CVC has agreed to sell high-end yacht marina group D-Marin for more than €1bn, as a superyacht boom spurs a wave of investments in the sector.
French private equity firm InfraVia will buy Athens-based D-Marin, a leading Mediterranean yacht marina group with 28 locations in Europe and the Middle East, the companies said on Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The transaction valued D-Marin at €1bn to €1.5bn, according to people familiar with the matter. CVC acquired the business in 2020.
D-Marin’s sale is the latest transaction in a flurry of dealmaking in the marina sector with investment groups including Blackstone and Stonepeak attracted by rising demand and opportunities for consolidation in a fragmented market.
D-Marin has 22 marinas in the Mediterranean and six others in markets including the United Arab Emirates. In total it has 14,300 berths, which are typically rented on an annual basis.
The Mediterranean is a global locus for boating, accounting for 70 per cent of yachting activities, with owners and operators facing waiting lists of a year or longer for berths, according to consultancy McKinsey.
D-Marin’s chief executive Oliver Dörschuck said the company benefited from an increase in boat ownership, even as the number of marinas was constrained.
“We see a constant inflow of new boats in the Mediterranean Sea, and the regulations of building a marina are very tough. You have a structural supply-demand imbalance,” Dörschuck told the FT.
McKinsey, which estimates that the $15bn marinas market will grow by 8 per cent annually through to the end of the decade, said in a report last year that there were 210,000 yachts globally and just 160,000 berths available.
CVC acquired D-Marin from Turkish conglomerate Doğuş Group. The deal with InfraVia will translate to a significant return for CVC, which bought the business for roughly €200mn six years ago.
Under the private equity firm’s ownership, D-Marin has expanded into new geographies and tripled revenues. It now has more than 50,000 customers a year and manages 12 professional boatyards.
“We transformed the business from a hidden gem into the clear market leader in premium marinas across Europe and the wider Emea region,” said CVC managing partner István Szőke.
InfraVia, which invests in assets such as infrastructure and real estate, plans to expand the business further, chief executive Vincent Levita said.
The fractured marinas market gave larger companies opportunities to expand by acquiring their smaller rivals, which are oftentimes family-owned businesses, Dörschuck said.
“When you have a highly fragmented market, you do have a lot of opportunities when you have scale,” he said.
Investment bankers at Goldman Sachs and lawyers at Clifford Chance advised CVC, while Morgan Stanley and White & Case worked with InfraVia.