Forex Investment

MONACO: Massimo Vilardi, an executive with Eurocopter, came to this years Monaco yacht show to sell helicopters.

Helicopters? At a boat show?

Yacht sales have increased 10 percent to 15 percent a year in the last few years, and this year was no exception. Since everyone who is anyone has to have a yacht, and increasingly does, what buyers want most now, naturally, are accessories: minisubmarines and helicopters.

Olivier Milliex, head of yacht finance at the Dutch bank ING, summed it up best. “Today, a mega-yacht is indispensable,” he said. “Its not like 15 years ago, when a yacht was a luxury item.”

Stock markets may be in rough seas and oil prices exploding, but none of that put much of a blemish on the mood at the trade fair last month in Monaco. Europeans often watch boat fairs like the canary in the coal mine to judge the overall health of their economies. But Monaco may not be the best bellwether: if other boating fairs are pr?t-a-porter, Monaco is, by design, haute couture.

The annual boating trade fair, hardly the largest in a series of fairs that go from Cannes to Genoa to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the end of October, ran here from Sept. 19 to Sept. 22. Monaco limits the number of exhibitors to about 500; moreover, many yacht builders do not even show yachts. Their customers do not want off-the-rack yachts, they want boats custom-built to designs that will not be replicated.

One bauble that increasing numbers of big yacht buyers are asking for is a helicopter. Of course, that means adding a pilot and a mechanic to the yachts crew, but for the people who buy these yachts, that is hardly a concern. So Vilardi, head of marketing in the business and private market segment of Eurocopter, a unit of the EADS aerospace group, has linked up with the British yacht broker Edmiston to meet their wishes. At Monaco this year, Edmiston showed a 60-meter, or 200-foot yacht with Eurocopters smallest helicopter, which sells for about $2 million, perched atop.

“Our motto is, To create what money cant buy, ” Vilardi said. “Youre looking at a global offer: a car, a yacht, a helicopter, maybe a plane.” And, maybe, a submarine?

Across the fair from Edmiston, the Dutch company U-Boat Worx was showing its colorful two-seater submarine, whose bulbous shape makes it look like Mickey and Minnie Mouse would drive it, with a list price of $246,000. The minisub, said Erik Hasselman, U-Boat Worxs head of sales and marketing, is ideal for stowing on a yacht, but for safety reasons can only dive to about 50 meters, where there is still surface light. “Its only for recreation,” he said.

The banks at the trade fair, said Milliex of ING, were doing cross-selling: offering tax and finance advice to the same people who they serve as private banking clients.

Some wealthy customers, for example, prefer a mortgage for their yacht, taking advantage of low interest rates, rather than tying up cash in a yacht purchase. Others need advice on creating a company to buy their yacht, rather than purchase it directly, to save on taxes, or on registering their boat in a foreign country to enable them to pay lower social security contributions for crew members. Many of the yachts parked in Monaco were registered in George Town, in the Cayman Islands.

“Anyone who is in the oil business, naturally, is going to be motivated to build a yacht,” said Hans-Erik Henze, senior vice president for yachts of Germanys Blohm Voss, a division of the ThyssenKrupp steel group. “And thats where we do a lot of our business.”

Blohm Voss had the largest yacht at the show, the 105-meter Lady Moura, but it was moored offshore, not for visiting, being too large to fit Monacos narrow harbor. Henze said the companys three yards had 15 yachts under construction. “Once, 100 meters was thought big,” he said. Now we have several projects above that.”

Despite the ostentation of Monacos yacht shoppers, some bargain hunters come here, and they, in turn, are attracting shipbuilders from low cost countries. One of those was Timmerman Yachts, a Russian-Polish enterprise with yards in Moscow that is named for the Dutchman who introduced Czar Peter the Great to the art of shipbuilding. The yards build yachts in five sizes, from 25 to 47 meters, and there are 12

Asked why someone in Monaco would buy a Russian yacht, Irina Bogatyreva, a company official, replied unabashedly: “The price is cheaper, and the quality is the same as in other countries.”

MONACO: Massimo Vilardi, an executive with Eurocopter, came to this years Monaco Yacht Show to sell helicopters.

Helicopters? At a boat show?

Yacht sales have increased 10 percent to 15 percent a year worldwide in the last few years, and this year has been no exception.

Many among the rich or famous want a yacht, and what buyers want most now, naturally, are accessories: minisubmarines and helicopters.

“Today, a megayacht is indispensable,” said Olivier Milliex, head of yacht finance at the Dutch bank ING. “Its not like 15 years ago, when a yacht was a luxury item.”

Stock markets may be volatile and the price of oil rising, but none of that dampened the mood here last month at the boating fair in Monaco. Europeans often watch boat fairs to judge the overall health of their economies. But Monaco may not be the best bellwether - if other boating fairs are pr?t-?-porter, Monaco is haute couture.

The annual event is hardly the largest in a series of fairs that run from Cannes, France, to Genoa, Italy, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the end of October. The Monaco fair, from Sept. 19 to Sept. 22, limits the number of exhibitors to about 500; also, many yacht builders do not even show yachts. Their customers do not want off-the-rack yachts; they want custom-built boats that will not be replicated.

“Our motto is, To create what money cant buy, ” said Vilardi, head of marketing in the business and private market segment of Eurocopter, a unit of the EADS aerospace group. “Youre looking at a global offer: a car, a yacht, a helicopter, maybe a plane.”

One bauble that more yacht buyers are asking for is a helicopter. Of course, that means adding a pilot and a mechanic to the yachts crew, but for the people who buy these yachts, that is hardly a concern.

So Vilardi has linked up with the British yacht brokers Edmiston to meet their wishes. At Monaco this year, Edmiston showed a 60-meter, or 200-foot, yacht with Eurocopters smallest helicopter, which sells for about $2 million, perched atop.

Across the fair from Edmiston, the Dutch company U-Boat Worx showed its colorful two-seater submarine - whose bulbous shape made it look like something Mickey and Minnie Mouse would drive - with a list price of $246,000.

The minisub, said Erik Hasselman, U-Boat Worxs head of sales and marketing, is ideal for stowing on a yacht, but for safety reasons can dive only to about 49 meters, where there is still surface light.

“Its only for recreation,” he said.

“Anyone who is in the oil business, naturally, is going to be motivated to build a yacht,” said Hans-Erik Henze, senior vice president for yachts of Blohm Voss, a division of the German steel maker Thyssen-Krupp. “And thats where we do a lot of our business.”

Blohm Voss had the largest yacht at the show, the 105-meter Lady Moura, but it was moored offshore and not available for visiting by the crowd since it was too large to navigate Monacos narrow harbor.

Henze said the companys three yards had 15 yachts under construction.

“Once, 100 meters was thought big,” he said. “Now we have several projects above that.”

With yachts of this size and cost, many of the yards are dependent on the whims of their customers. L?rssen Yachts of Germany showed no boat this year because the owner of the yacht they wanted to display declined.

“He said hed prefer to go cruising in Greece,” said Sylke auf dem Graben, L?rssens marketing manager. “But he promised we can have it for Fort Lauderdale, at the end of October.”

Despite the ostentation of Monacos yacht shoppers, some bargain hunters come here, and they, in turn, attract shipbuilders from low-cost countries. One of those was Timmerman Yachts, a Russian-Polish enterprise with yards in Moscow that is named for the Dutchman who introduced Peter the Great to the art of shipbuilding. The yards build yachts in five sizes, from 26 meters to 47 meters, and there are 12 under construction.

Asked why someone in Monaco would buy a Russian yacht, Irina Bogatyreva, a company official, replied unabashedly, “The price is cheaper, and the quality is the same as in other countries.”

Indeed, some of the worlds biggest yachts are now owned by Russians. Roman Abramovich, the tycoon, owns at least three, and has another under construction, the 165-meter Eclipse, which according to Monaco newspapers will be outfitted with twin helicopter landing pads and a submarine.