YachtCreators, the full-service new build and brokerage firm, has announced a $100million joint venture with Trinity Atlantic Capital (Trinity) to finance the construction of superyachts for retail buyers starting in Q1 2022. SuperyachtNews speaks exclusively with Barin Cardenas, founder and CEO of YachtCreators, about the new financing model.

Trinity is an international financial services firm with a record of financing high-value luxury goods around the world, including art, fine wine, private aviation and cryptocurrencies. The agreement with YachtCreators, however, represents Trinity’s first commitment to the superyacht market.

“YachtCreators is a market leader,” says Trinity’s principal, Jim Allan. “We evaluate opportunities to finance growth around the world every day, and James Wilson and I are looking forward to spending more time at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show working with Barin’s team. We couldn’t wait to be a part of their trajectory.”

“New build construction has always been a cash outlay, using milestone payments over a period of months and years, with virtually no banking or financing solutions for most,” explains Cardenas. “There are a lot of potential buyers that would rather not take $10-40million out of their bank account, when they require that cash to build their businesses and create more money. Once the boat is built there are ample financial solutions available over long terms with low rates.”

According to Cardenas, unless you are commissioning a spec build from a major listed company, then buyers are largely on their own and, therefore, new build financing, or the lack thereof, has impeded the growth of the new-build market.

“I am always looking for ways to grow our market, we have been too reliant on the same players buying the same boats,” continues Cardenas. “The brokerage industry is on fire and financing is assisting a lot of those buyers in the brokerage world, but it has yet to trickle into new construction and that is what we are trying to achieve.

“The upper and lower ranges of superyachts have their own solutions. If it is a lower end buyer, they will be buying a spec build and they will be putting 20-30 per cent down and then the rest will be managed by the shipyard. At the range above $60million, they will have various solutions of their own. This solution is for someone buying in the 24-45m range that has a cash flow business that is doing well. The key is that they will want to keep their cash in the business to help it grow.”

Cardenas concludes but outlining what he hopes to achieve through the new financing solution. At its core, the new solution has been designed to get more owners and more superyachts into the superyacht market ecosystem.

“The only way we grow is by producing more boats, but not just US buyers who are easy to finance, but also other nations in Latin America, and various other areas that just haven’t been brought into the market. But, we aren’t just looking at different owners; we are looking at different boats. I would love to see yards, that haven’t had the type of exposure that some of the public companies and big brands have had, bring new products to the market and spur innovation.”

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