Rich lister Ian Malouf brings $40m superyacht to Gold Coast
He might often be called Australia’s wealthiest garbo, but it’s not a truck he’ll be parking up on the Gold Coast for the next three weeks. It’s a 54m superyacht, and this is how you can get a taste of how the other half lives.
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MAKING MISCHIEF
Got a spare $20,000 for a two-hour cruise on the Gold Coast for you and about 20 of your socially-distanced mates?
If so, Rich Lister Ian Malouf, who controls a fortune estimated at about $700m, has got just the boat for you.
The man often called “Australia’s wealthiest garbo’’ is bringing his 54m superyacht Mischief to the Southport Marina and Gold Coast City Marina for three weeks of partying, charters and maintenance starting this Friday.
The enormous vessel, which Malouf acquired for $40m in 2015 and then comprehensively overhauled, pulls in to port after stop-offs in Noosa and Tangalooma.
It was originally expected to moor next to the Brisbane CBD later this week and offer trips up the river for three days but those plans were thrown out the window on Monday as the region’s COVID-19 drama intensified.
Mischief, considered to be one of the biggest yachts of its kind to ever ply Australian waters, is not just an over-the-top pleasure palace for Malouf and his family.
Rather, it’s the linchpin of his new online luxury charter business Ahoy Club, an industry disrupter on par with Uber or Airbnb for its price-cutting appeal.
With a permanent crew of 13 and two chefs on board, the superyacht features Veuve Clicquot on tap, six bedrooms and a party deck complete with a jacuzzi. Did we mention the inflatable slide, jetskis and clay pigeon shooting?
Among the A-listers who have shelled out the $500,000 a week or so to hire the craft is James Packer, who spent two months aboard it last year in Europe.
HUMBLE START
The rarefied air of the superyacht crowd is a long way from Malouf’s humble beginning as a one-man rubbish collection enterprise known as “Dial A Dump’’.
He launched the business in Sydney in 1984 while he was still a student and by 2018 it had grown to generate nearly $52m in pre-tax earnings.
That same year Malouf struck a deal to sell the company for $577m to listed outfit Bingo Industries, where he now also serves as a non-executive director.
The agreement, which saw Malouf pocket $378m in cash and the rest in Bingo shares, was finally approved by regulators in 2019.
Meanwhile, he and one of his five kids, 24-year-old Ellie, launched the Ahoy Club in mid-2018 and today it features more than 3800 boats for hire around the world. The priciest will set you back more than $3m a week.
Malouf dreamt up the idea of the charter business in 2015 after he felt ripped off by yacht brokers in the Mediterranean.
With just a 4 per cent brokerage fee, Ahoy Club claims it saves clients up to 20 per cent on normal charter costs.
Malouf is looking to add other opulent boats to the collection too. Last October he shelled out $60m to acquire 72m superyacht Coral Ocean at the Monaco Yacht Show.
In case that wasn’t enough, he’s also using the Ahoy business model for the corporate jet market.
Last year Malouf launched Central Jets, a membership-based enterprise in London that allows clients to book flights direct with plane owners/operators after getting competitive quotes from them.
CARBON NEGATIVE
One of Brisbane’s biggest craft brewers is not just going carbon neutral.
No, BrewDog is going carbon negative, vowing on Monday to remove twice as much of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere as it emits each year.
The Scottish company, which opened its $30m “DogTap Brisbane’’ venue last November, is ploughing $55m into an array of green investments around the world.
In addition to adding solar panels, the Brisbane venue will redirect all spent grain to feed cattle and offset emissions via a reforestation project.
BrewDog is also planning to buy a 2000ha bit of the Scottish Highlands, plant a million trees and launch a “sustainable drive thru’’ for electric vehicles and zero waste packaging such as kegs and growlers.