Italian shipyard Privilege has announced that it is resuming work. The company, which has been experiencing significant financial difficulties and problems with a shortage of workers, plans to complete the current 127m yacht project within the next six months.
The yard has a customer who is interested in the 150m and is making the monthly payments but at the moment is technically unable to produce a yacht of this size. Nevertheless they see this as a positive development as they hope to continue to finance the construction of the 127m with the proceeds from the client's funds and then sell the yacht and use the proceeds to furnish the 150m.
Privilege has been experiencing financial problems since December 2012. They began after one of the banks that helped finance the construction of the 127m for sale was unable to meet its commitments. Then other financial institutions also failed to support the project. For a certain period of time the owner of the yard had to rely only on his own funds, but there were not enough resources.
Now, with funds for the completion of the 127-metre vessel, the company is confident that it will return to the market strengthened. The boat will be completed in half a year, production of the 150m will commence shortly thereafter and negotiations for the 180m are likely to progress. With outside help the company will be able to increase the number of workers from 40 to 500 in the near future.
