Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), an Italian investment bank that finances new investments in research, development and innovation, has signed a €10 million financing contract with the Sanlorenzo Group for the period 2020-2022.

“With this operation, CDP confirms its practical support for the business fabric of the Liguria region in a key sector for the economy of the territory, yachting,” comments Nunzio Tartaglia, chief corporate business officer at CDP. “It is part of our continuous objective to promote and boost the industry’s processes of innovation, while increasing and developing leading Italian pursuers of excellence on a global level.” 

The contract is intended to help develop innovations and cutting-edge technologies within the yachting market, with a focus on sustainability. The move also aims to safeguard jobs and guarantee the operations of the of the yacht production sector, supply chain and related businesses.

“We are delighted to have such a prestigious partner as Cassa Depositi e Prestiti for our research, development and innovation programmes, in which we are continuing to invest significant resources,” says Massimo Perotti, executive chairman at Sanlorenzo. “In a scenario of drastic change like the one caused by COVID-19, Sanlorenzo has confirmed all investments destined for the development of new products, as we are convinced that innovation plays a fundamental role in the elements required to ensure future development and tackle the new challenges we are facing.”

“We are convinced that innovation plays a fundamental role in the elements required to ensure future development and tackle the new challenges we are facing.”

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanlorenzo recently announced that, until 23 March, the shipyard had been working at full capacity and only started to progressively close its facilities in the last week of March. Following a decree issued by the Region of Liguria, Sanlorenzo’s facilities in Ameglia and La Spezia re-opened on 14 April, in line with the provisions issued by the decree. Similarly, following an order issued by the Tuscany Region on 16 April, Sanlorenzo was able to prepare the re-opening of its facilities in Viareggio.

Hence, since 20 April, all the group’s facilities have been operational in accordance with the procedures defined by local provisions and national regulations and work has restarted on yachts scheduled to be delivered by July 2020. If there are no further interruptions, Sanlorenzo believes it will be able to limit the impact on its delivery schedule.

“The actions we took, together with our business model based on a highly flexible cost structure, the strength of the brand, and the loyalty of our customers, will allow the company to recover the period in which activities were suspended, limiting, therefore, any impact on the company’s results,” adds Perotti. “Also, bearing in mind that the group benefits from a solid financial structure and a backlog of over €500 million, 92 per cent of which is made up of direct customers.”

According to The Superyacht Agency, since 2011, Sanlorenzo has delivered a total of 96 superyacht projects at an average of 10.7 units per year. The data shows that there are 24 deliveries scheduled for 2020, which would mean Sanlorenzo starting the new decade with a record annual delivery output that outperforms its average output for the previous nine years by more than double. While a shipyard's order book is usually overly-optimistic at the best of the times, given the impact of COVID-19 on yacht-building operations, this number should perhaps be considered with even greater skepticism.

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