Sunseeker has new owners, and they arrived through the debt. Cross Ocean Partners and Cheyne Capital confirmed on 28 July that they have completed their takeover of the British yacht builder, converting the loans they extended last November into full ownership. The deal hands one of the best-known names in British motor yachts to two credit specialists, and puts a permanent chief executive in charge who comes out of corporate turnarounds, not boatbuilding.
Cross Ocean Partners, founded in 2015, runs about $12.2 billion in assets. Cheyne Capital is a London credit house that has been in the market since 2000. Neither is a yachting name. Both became lenders to Sunseeker in November 2025, and when the planned sale of the company faltered this spring, the lenders stepped up to owners.
From creditors to owners
The route here was not a clean auction. A trade sale to KCP Holdings, backed by Lionheart Capital, was on the table earlier in the year and stalled by April. With that exit closed off, the two lenders moved to take the keys themselves — the classic distressed-debt endgame, where the people holding the paper end up holding the company. Teneo advised on the restructuring.
Poole, on England's south coast, remains the headquarters. The yards, the model families and the workforce carry on; what changed is the name on the cap table and, with it, the mandate. Owners who came in through the credit line tend to want a plan, a timeline and a return, and they have brought in the people to deliver it.
A turnaround CEO, made permanent
Scott Millar is now the permanent chief executive. He is not a yachting lifer — his background is 27-plus years of business and operational transformation — and he arrived at Sunseeker through Teneo, where he authored the company's five-year growth plan. He ran the business on an interim basis from December 2025 to April 2026, and the shareholders have now confirmed him in the seat for good.
"What attracted me most to Sunseeker was the scale of opportunity ahead," Millar said. "We have a clear vision, ambitious plans for growth and the full support of our shareholders to invest in the brand, our people and our products."
Steve Timms, the outgoing interim chief executive, endorsed the choice and pointed back to the plan Millar built. "He and his team at Teneo were responsible for creating the five-year strategic plan," Timms said. "We wanted it to be someone who truly cares about this brand."
An automotive top table
The rest of the new leadership reads less like a shipyard org chart and more like a premium-car boardroom. The people brought in to run commercial strategy, positioning and technology come almost entirely from automotive and premium consumer brands.
The new executive team
- Andy Gawthorpe — Chief Commercial Officer. Former global sales director at Aston Martin; earlier at Triumph Motorcycles.
- Ian Morgan — Chief Strategy Officer. Around 20 years across automotive and premium brands.
- James Grove — Chief Information Officer. Previously with Chelsea FC and Southampton FC.
- Adrian Mardell — Non-Executive Chairman. 35 years at Jaguar Land Rover, three of them as chief executive.
That is a deliberate pattern. Aston Martin, Triumph, Jaguar Land Rover — these are people who have run premium positioning, dealer networks and brand transformation at scale, and they have been assembled at the top of a yacht builder that its owners clearly intend to reposition.
What it signals
The story here is not the sale itself but who ended up in charge. Distressed-debt lenders now own Sunseeker outright, and they have stacked the leadership with turnaround and premium-brand executives instead of yachting insiders. The signal is a premiumisation and transformation play: the same discipline used to reset a luxury car marque, pointed this time at a British boatbuilder.
The visible payoff is still ahead. A corporate rebrand and new product concepts are planned to debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival later in 2026, and that is where the strategy stops being a set of appointments and starts being something buyers can see on the water. Until then, the change is real but abstract: new owners, a new chief executive and a new top team, all pointed at a relaunch that has not happened yet.
Sunseeker's lenders have become its owners, and they have handed the brand to turnaround and premium-car executives, not yachting veterans. The rebrand and new models due at Cannes later in 2026 are the first moment the market will get to judge the plan.
Photo: Sunseeker International (press).
