Ian Malouf’s Ahoy Club superyacht business merges with Ray White Marine
The billionaire dial-a-dump founder is buying into a business that also sells luxury boats in Australia and New Zealand as well as leasing individual yacht berths and marinas.
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Billionaire Ian Malouf is adding luxury boat dealerships and distribution rights to his growing superyacht business, with a deal to take a significant stake in Ray White Marine.
Malouf’s Ahoy Club superyacht chartering and sales business, run by daughter Ellie Malouf, is merging with the RWM firm headed by the Rodwell family and backed by real estate group giant Ray White.
The deal comes after the Maloufs started a sales arm for their Ahoy Club chartering business – which in only five years has successfully disrupted the existing charter industry by slashing commissions – to capture the big demand for opulent vessels in Australia and overseas.
RWM has exclusive Australia and New Zealand distributorship rights for the Ferretti Group, which includes the Riva Yachts brand, innovative Sunreef Yachts luxury catamarans and Technohull high performance offshore tenders.
The business also leases and markets individual yacht berths and marinas, and will continue with its new vessel sales and brokerage divisions.
Ahoy Club will focus on their expertise in yacht charters, management and larger scale superyacht sales.
“The reason we’re breaking into sales is really obvious. When people charter and really enjoy it, then they want to buy,” Malouf told The Australian late last year.
The best known boat in the Ahoy Club stable is Malouf’s $100m, 73m Coral Ocean, featuring a spa pool, private treatment room with infra-red sauna, teppanyaki grill, indoor-outdoor gym and an on-board beauty therapist.
Ahoy Club rents out Coral Ocean for about €790,000 ($1.2m) per week, including during the current European summer season across the Mediterranean.
Malouf is Australia’s superyacht king. He and his family own 10 other yachts that average about 30m in length – including the 54m superyacht Mischief that is now usually based in Sydney.
Revenue for Coral Ocean should be about $14m annually, which is more than for a lot of other boats, Malouf told The Australian in March for a feature story in the 2023 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250.
“You can make it profitable. It does take a while, but it is a business. I have to pay whenever I am on it, and then it can be a case of Ellie saying ‘you need to get off because others want to charter it’.”
Ellie Malouf said the merger between Ahoy Club and RWM would “strengthen our customer offering and drive expansion”.
“Strategically for us, having more experts available in key locations is an important part of this merger.”
The combined businesses will have offices in Australia and New Zealand, including Double Bay and Elizabeth Bay in Sydney, the Gold Coast, Auckland, the Whitsundays and a prestige showroom in Melbourne with Zagame Automotive Group.
Brock Rodwell has been appointed chief executive of RWM and will also lead the combined group’s global brand as Head of Yacht Sales for Ahoy Club, Asia-Pacific.
[Ahoy club] in a short period of time … has become a main player in our industry when it comes to charter and professional yacht management, integrating a proven sales team was the next natural step,” Rodwell said.
The merger will complement each business in many ways [that] others won’t be able to match.”
His father Rick will remain with the business in a sales role.
RWM recently sold a 30.1m boat from the Ferretti 1000 Skydeck series, the largest model built by Ferretti Yachts that can accommodate up to 10 guests across five luxury staterooms.
Malouf founded Dial-a-Dump with a single truck and shovel in 1984, eventually selling it into Bingo Industries in a $577m cash and shares deal in 2021. He remains on the privatised Bingo board, and still has waste property holdings in Sydney’s east, but now mostly devotes his time to Ahoy Club.
Originally published as Ian Malouf’s Ahoy Club superyacht business merges with Ray White Marine
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