The sale of The Italian Sea Group's assets has produced a long list of interested parties, and most of them want the same thing: build capacity. One name on that list wants something narrower, and geography explains why.
Baglietto is at Viale San Bartolomeo 414 in La Spezia. The TISG yard now up for sale — the old Beconcini site, bought out of Perini Navi's insolvency — is at Viale San Bartolomeo 428. The same street, fourteen numbers along it.
What was actually said
Diego Michele Deprati, chief executive of Baglietto, gave one interview on this. Speaking to Il Sole 24 Ore on 11 August:
Diego Michele Deprati, CEO, Baglietto:“For now we are watching the evolution of the situation with interest, and we will assess it in due course.
”
That is the whole of it. There is no Baglietto press release about TISG, nothing on the company website, and no offer on the table. Company sources told the Italian trade outlet Blue Economy that the interest covers the La Spezia yard only, and that the rest of the package is not in the plans — but those sources are unnamed.
Headlines have run ahead of that. "Baglietto eyes potential bid" and "Baglietto confirms interest in TISG assets" are both further than anyone at the yard has gone on the record.
Why the yard next door and not the big one
Baglietto has a space problem, and it is not the ordinary kind that money solves.
The La Spezia site sits between the Italian Navy's naval test and support centre on one side and a NATO pipeline corridor on the other. There is nowhere to expand inland. The four-year plan the yard published in March 2026 grows towards the water, because that is the only direction available.
Deprati said as much in May, three months before TISG's assets went on the block and without naming them:
Diego Michele Deprati, May 2026:“We need to find operational space.
”
He added that two possible solutions in La Spezia were being studied. Nobody has connected that remark to TISG on the record, and it is worth being careful about the temptation to do it for him.
What the site would actually add
The numbers are the argument. The TISG yard in La Spezia runs about 32,000 square metres of yard and hardstanding, with three 70-metre sheds, two 50-metre piers and two travel lifts rated at 260 and 820 tonnes. It does refit and service work today, mostly on Perini sailing yachts.
Baglietto next door has more than 35,000 square metres, three sheds up to 65 metres, piers up to 70 metres and a 700-tonne travel lift.
| Facility | Baglietto (414) | TISG site (428) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yard area | over 35,000 m² | about 32,000 m² | |
| Sheds | three, up to 65 m | three, 70 m | |
| Travel lift | 700 t | 260 t and 820 t | |
| Current use | new build | refit and service |
So the site next door is not a duplicate. It is bigger sheds, more lifting capacity and a working refit business — three things Baglietto cannot build on its own footprint.
The price has moved as well. TISG paid €80 million for the Perini Navi package in January 2022. Italian financial outlet BeBeez now puts talk of the La Spezia site alone at €20–30 million.
Who else is at the table
Italian press reporting puts seven groups in the data room: Polo Nautico Carrara (in which Sanlorenzo holds 45%), SRI Global, Azimut|Benetti, Ferretti, Safe Harbor, Gavio through Baglietto, and the Palumbo family. That line-up comes from journalists, not from any company disclosure.
The calendar is firmer. Indicative offers are due on 15 September, binding offers on 15 October, and signing is targeted for 26 October.
What is on offer beyond La Spezia: the main yard at Marina di Carrara, the Viareggio site, the brands — Admiral, Tecnomar, Perini Navi, Picchiotti — stakes in a joinery business in Terni and in TISG's Turkish operation, plus the live order book.
Who Baglietto is now
Worth knowing, because the buyer's balance sheet decides how seriously to take any of this.
Baglietto belongs to the Gavio family, who bought the bankrupt yard in early 2012 for €18.5 million. Gruppo Gavio turned over around €5.6 billion in 2024 across motorways, infrastructure, logistics and food. Baglietto is a small line in that group.
The yard itself did €140 million in 2023 and an estimated €160 million in 2024. The order book has held around €500 million for two years: as of late May, 17 yachts in build between 35 and 60 metres, slots sold out to 2028, six or seven handovers a year, about a thousand people across La Spezia and Carrara. Deprati has ruled out a stock listing.
The part to keep an eye on
An owner with a boat in build at Admiral or Perini Navi cares about one question — who ends up running the yard and the contract. That answer comes from Carrara and the brands, not from the strip of waterfront in La Spezia.
But if the La Spezia site goes to the yard along the same street, it changes what Baglietto can build. An 820-tonne travel lift and 70-metre sheds put larger hulls within reach on a site the company otherwise had no way to grow.
For now none of it is signed, and the only person at Baglietto who has spoken about it said they are watching.
Photo: Blue Economy. Sources: Il Sole 24 Ore, Blue Economy, BeBeez, BOAT International, SuperYacht Times, Pressmare, NoiTV.
