THE SORRENTINE GOZZO- APREA FOR SALE?

Ferretti Said to Mull Selling Smaller Yachts, Keeping Biggest

By Andrea Manzini and Sara Gay Forden

May 13 (Bloomberg) — Ferretti SpA, the Italian yachtmaker seized by creditors last month, may sell some of its entry-level luxury boat brands and focus on the most expensive vessels to survive, five people familiar with the company’s plans said.

Disposals may include the Apreamare and Itama units, which suffered the most cancellations of Ferretti’s nine marques as customers lacking the resilience of the ultra-rich were spooked by the credit crisis or lost financing, the people said. They declined to be identified as no decision has been finalized.

“Focusing on the top-class public decisively decreases the risk of cancellations,” Nicolo Nunziata, an analyst at J&C Associati in Milan, said of Forli, Italy-based Ferretti. “Buying those brands was a strategic mistake.”

Ferretti capped a decade of acquisitions with an attempt to go public in 2008. That failed with the end of a four-year stock market boom that had created a wave of new clients.

Apreamare fishing boats sell for as little as 500,000 euros ($665,700) and the unit has been valued at around 60 million euros, including its shipyard, the people said. Riva, which won’t be sold, caters to wealthier buyers and makes 115-foot yachts that command 12 million euros apiece.

A spokeswoman for Ferretti declined to comment. Apreamare Chairman Cataldo Aprea said he’s leading an investor group interested in buying back his family brand.

A group of 100 creditors led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc converted their debt to equity to avert bankruptcy for Ferretti, restructuring 1.2 billion euros of debt in April. The stake held by former owner Candover Investments Plc, a London- based private-equity firm, was wiped out after Ferretti missed payments on loans related to its 2007 buyout.

Debt Payments

Lenders expect Ferretti to start paying interest on the restructured debt from June, helped by a wave of customer payments as yachts are delivered for summer, the people said.

Until a new chief executive is found, the yachtmaker will be run by current managers, including co-founder Norberto Ferretti, along with input from investment bank Mediobanca SpA, which is jointly investing 85 million euros. RBS and the other creditors-turned-equity holders don’t have voting rights.

Ferretti’s most opulent offerings include custom-designed CRN yachts, which can exceed 200 feet and sell for as much as 40 million euros. A similarly long GiVi vessel comes with a gym, helicopter pad and what Ferretti calls a “wellness area.”