Michael Verdon
02/02/2004
While a yacht owner views pedigree in terms of his yacht’s resale value, financial institutions also have a higher degree of confidence in shipyards with a known track record. "We’d rather do business with a yard that has a long pedigree, than someone building a one-off boat in his backyard," says Lisa Verbit, senior vice president of the Private Bank at Bank of America. "There are too many stories of yards that have gone out of business, leaving the owners to buy the shipyards in order to finish their yachts."
Despite the horror stories, Verbit adds that Bank of America has worked with its share of new yards, too, though it performs extensive due diligence to make sure every yard has the financial depth to see the project through. "Even well-known yards suddenly have issues," she says. "We had to finish a yacht last year after one Florida yard went into bankruptcy. We’d built six yachts with them before, with no problems." Several name-brand shipyards, including Intermarine, have gone out of business in the past two years, and one of the oldest pedigrees, Palmer-Johnson, is just reemerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But Verbit says the vast majority of projects go through to completion.
What about having your yacht built overseas? "It’s a bit more complicated working with a non-U.S. yard," says Verbit. "There’s a currency risk involved in Europe, because you’re dealing with the euro, unless the project is priced in dollars. And it takes more time for due diligence, and the client pays more in legal fees since you’re paying for an attorney here and in that country."
Verbit says that the loan for a foreign project would have to exceed $7 million for her bank to potentially become a partner, largely because of the inherent risks. "We’re particular about which yards we build with," she says. "We don’t want an unhappy client and a half-completed yacht halfway around the world."
But once again, the idea of pedigree pays. Verbit says she has put together multiple loans for clients in pedigree yards in Europe and Australia, once they clear due-
diligence hurdles. She expects to continue working with better-known foreign yards.
While Verbit has seen a growing interest in building overseas, she has also witnessed an explosion in the dollar amount for loans. "In 1989, a million-dollar yacht loan would’ve been large," she says. "That’s still a nice-sized loan, but the average is closer to $4 million. That number continues to rise each year as the yachts get larger and more complicated." Which is why, she notes, it is better to invest in a pedigree yacht with a healthy resale value.
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