Australia’s Richest 250: Ian Malouf is making a splash in the world of superyachts
Ian Malouf, Australia’s richest garbo, has traded bins for fancy boats, but even he — with his billion-dollar personal fortune — has suffered bill shock at the expense of living afloat.
Having a $100m, 73m superyacht featuring a spa pool, private treatment room with infra-red sauna, teppanyaki grill, indoor-outdoor gym and an on-board beauty therapist can get you to a lot of places.
Ian Malouf is living his best life. The billionaire Dial-a-Dump founder has spent the best part of January and February on the clear waters of the Caribbean, taking in stops at such places as St Barts, Nassau and the Bahamas (where he could see the Albany private community of Sam Bankman-Fried fame from his boat).
Malouf was aboard the stunning Coral Ocean, which he purchased on a whim at the Monaco boat show in 2019 – “I saw it, made an offer and 72 hours later I’d bought it, which may be some sort of record” – and then spent €35m ($53m) to refit it in time for the last year’s European summer.
The full version of The List for 2023 has been published here for app readers or www.richest250.com.au for all other readers.
While he and his family got to enjoy the Mediterranean – considered the hottest market for superyachts, even without cashed-up Russian clientele these days – Coral Ocean was put to work as the crown jewel of Malouf’s Ahoy Club yacht chartering business.
Run by daughter Ellie Malouf, Ahoy Club rented out Coral Ocean for about €790,000 ($1.2m) per week. It was booked out for the entire summer.
Clients, including Canadian rap star Drake, shelled out to rent the superyacht that also includes a sky lounge, hair salon facilities on a master bedroom deck, another four guest bedrooms, two full bars, a pizza oven, and a VIP suite that can be used as a movie cinema.
When Malouf got access to the boat, he says he too had to pay his own way. Destinations included the Monaco Grand Prix, the Cannes film festival, Sardinia and St Tropez.
“Before we got it, it was going for €350,000 per week,” Malouf says. “We were going to spend €5 million on a refit but decided to go for a big refurbishment for €35 million. But the amount we’re getting for it now shows that sort of investment can pay off. “
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.
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“You can make it profitable. 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’”
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Coral Ocean is the object of his affections for now though, and it is easy to see why when he describes what life can be like on board.
“You could hang out with 12 other people or you can go and have your own space and not get in each other’s way. The rooms are so big. You’ve got a big kingsize bed, his and her bathrooms, and the dressing areas are so big too. The guest areas are four big bedrooms and you can get straight out of the sauna and jump into the water. The next level has a bar and VIP cabins. There’s a deck with lounge rooms and a dining area. You go up to the owners’ deck and there’s a massive entertainment area, a sky lounge, a big TV.
“The bow is the size of most boats. You can go up and have a party. Over a week you can hang out in seven different places. You can sun bake. You don’t have to get off the boat.”
Coral Ocean has all the toys a billionaire could need for a week or two on board. Think jet skis, inflatable water slides, and a large tender to take a guest to shore if there’s an expensive restaurant or event that needs to be visited.
One of the biggest trends are wellness centres incorporated into space aboard. Yoga mats and pilates reformers are one thing. Himalayan salt rooms, cryotherapy chambers, saunas, glass-walled gyms and hot and cold water treatments are all the rage. As are plunge pools, and fold-in terrace balconies to bring the outside elements in. Even snow rooms are being installed.
Yachts are known for their partying potential but these days there can be a balance. Nightclubs are a popular addition – James Packer’s boat is said to have good sound insulation and a “virtual aquarium” that shows sea life through pretend portholes projected on walls – but some boats can have what are wellness areas by day converted into dance venues by night.
Malouf certainly isn’t the only member of The List to take in exotic locales aboard their own vessels. Superyachts are the hottest trophy an Australian billionaire can have. Packer’s $260 million IJE (the initials of his three children) was designed by the Italian shipbuilding company Benetti and can accommodate up to 22 guests overnight in 11 cabins.
It has an outdoor bar, gym, beauty salon and helipad, as well as a fire pit, swimming pool and dance floor. Last year, Packer was pictured aboard IJE in Portofino.
His guests during the European summer included Robert De Niro and Brookyn Beckham, who enjoyed diving off the board near Antibes.
Lindsay Fox’s Volpini 2 (Volpini is Italian for “little fox”) also has a wellness centre and gym, de rigueur for one’s superyacht these days. There’s also a 30sq m “beach club” and an 80sq m master suite on the main deck.
Solomon Lew’s 54m Maridome was spotted in Mallorca at the height of the Spanish summer. The boat has 14 crew and usually takes about 10 guests.
A year ago, Clive Palmer moored his $50 million superyacht Australia next to Sydney’s Park Hyatt to stay on during his defamation trial against Western Australia premier Mark McGowan. Palmer’s boat includes a wet bar and spa, a wood-panelled office and lounge space that features some of the billionaire’s favourite paintings.
Trevor Lee once claimed a $25 million tax deduction for his Kerri Lee III, named for his wife and featuring a jacuzzi, six bedrooms, a boardroom and a galley with chef.
The boat is chartered. More recently, Lee has made headlines for trying to recover $12.85 million from an American film company for alleged damage to the yacht.
Frank Lowy and his family usually enjoy the European summer aboard his yacht Ilona. Said to have cost him $100m, the 81m Ilona has five decks, room for up to 60 guests in six cabins and a 14-seat cinema.
Jack Cowin has a 60m vessel, Slipstream, that has a 4.5m totem pole – a nod to his Canadian heritage – and Aboriginal artworks hung throughout. Meanwhile, Brett Blundy has reportedly put his Cloud 9 up for sale for about $167m. Cloud 9’s rooms are named after Star Wars characters, with Blundy’s master suite said to be called Yoda.
Malouf says wealthy Australians are among the world’s most enthusiastic yacht buyers and charterers, but the bills are not for the faint-hearted. A rule of thumb is that annual running costs will generally be about 10 per cent of the price a billionaire shells out for their vessel, which is why chartering the boat to others can be cost effective.
“You could be looking at a payroll of $250,000 per month,” Malouf explains.
“Then you’ve got extras on top of that, which could be another $300,000. We can staff up to 28 and it is usually two months on and two off. Some can be one month on and one off.
“The boats do get older as well, so they need maintenance. Overall, that can be millions of dollars. It definitely is a case of ‘buying them is one thing, running them is another’.”
Revenue for Coral Ocean should be about $14m annually, which is more than for a lot of other boats, Malouf says.
“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’.”
Generally, the rich will chart a course in the European summer that will take in Monaco, St Tropez, Cannes, potentially the Canary Islands, Sardinia and Italy’s Amalfi coast. Croatia and Turkey have also been popular additions to itineraries in recent years.
July and August are usually the most popular months, though pent-up demand due to Covid-19 restrictions meant the Mediterranean was busy for the entire three months of summer last year, Malouf says. The Caribbean can be popular in the North American months. St Barts, Antigua, British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and St Kitts and Nevis.
In Australia, Sydney is a popular base for day charters and special occasions such as the New Year’s Eve fireworks. Malouf wants to use Mischief for trips to islands in the Pacific Ocean later this year.
He says the usual path towards superyacht ownership starts with a local charter, moves to renting a boat in the Mediterranean for a week during a family holiday and then moving on to paying tens of millions to buy a vessel. But like cars and prestige housing, demand is high and waiting times can be long.
“If you build brand new, you book your slot and it’s a five-year journey,” Malouf explains. “You work out what you want, where to put your sauna and all the fun stuff. Then it is four years to build it. I like to say it is five years from a thought bubble to popping the bubbles (to celebrate)” He says the sheer length of time it takes to build a new superyacht is why some will sell their slots to others keen to jump the queue. It is also why many older boats – like houses – get refurbished, which is a shorter process than a complete build.
The long wait is also a reason that the second-hand market has been hot – especially given that Russian-owned boats have been impounded by authorities or quietly left in docks, creating a shortage.
“There’s probably been record sales over the past two years,” Malouf said. “And now you’ve got the new builds lined up for the next few years too.”
But as economic uncertainty starts to pervade the world, Malouf predicts there will be a slowdown, particularly as 2022 was such a big year after a couple of years of Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions.
Wealthy Chinese travelling to Europe again might help – “China is an untapped market and there’s no doubt they will slowly come to the fore,” says Malouf – but 2023 may not quite reach the highs of last year.
Not that Malouf won’t be having fun aboard his various yachts this year. “Oh we’re going to be spoilt for choice,” he says. “Mischief is going to be heading to New Zealand in February and March and Tahiti after that. There’s Fiji and the Whitsundays too. Coral Ocean is over in the Caribbean and the family will shoot over there (early in the year) and it’ll be in Europe after that.
“Yeah, it’s all about trying to keep up with all these boats. All the movement of the boats is going to be a lot of fun.”
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