Next Yacht Group — the Viareggio holding behind Maiora and AB Yachts — has bought SIMAN outright. The deal, announced on 23 July, hands the group 100% of a La Spezia metalworking firm through Continental Investment Srl, the same ownership that already sits behind the Group. On paper it reads as a supplier acquisition. In practice it is the group deciding to build metal superyachts — and to build the metal itself.
Who SIMAN is
Founded in 1988, SIMAN is not a shipyard. It is a metal-fabrication and mechanical-engineering shop: steel and aluminium hull work, propulsion systems, refit and maintenance on vessels up to 60 metres. For years it ran as a subcontractor, Italian Navy contracts included — the kind of quiet industrial supplier whose name never reaches an owner's brochure. Its roughly 70 staff stay on.
Why buy the supplier
Maiora and AB Yachts made their name in GRP: moulded composite hulls, light and fast. Metal is a different craft. Steel and aluminium are welded rather than moulded, and that is the segment where superyachts get genuinely large. Until now, a group wanting a metal hull would farm the work out. Next Yacht Group has chosen to own the step instead.
The purchase gives both brands a dedicated metal-superyacht division. A first 50-metre Maiora is already under construction, and the group says the first new metal models will break cover before the end of 2026.
The €11 million already spent, against a €20 million plan, is the tell. This is not an announcement of intent. It is a project already halfway through.
Petroni's read
Mario Petroni, Chairman, Next Yacht Group:“The acquisition of Siman represents a natural evolution of our industrial growth strategy. This transaction expands our manufacturing capabilities in the strategically important metal yacht segment while strengthening a highly specialised Italian industrial supply chain.
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Part of a bigger reshuffle
The timing is not isolated. SIMAN landed in the same week that Azimut-Benetti was publicly denying any interest in The Italian Sea Group — a reminder that Italy's builders are all, in their own way, redrawing the map of who owns what. Some are eyeing rivals. Next Yacht Group is reaching down its own supply chain.
Vertical integration is the whole story here. By owning the metalwork rather than renting it, Next Yacht Group turns a one-off supplier relationship into a permanent capability — and hands Maiora and AB Yachts a route out of GRP and into the larger, metal end of the market.
Photo: Next Yacht Group (press).
