Luxury yachts find rich Asian buyers
As wealth among the millionaires in the region grows, so does their appetite for expensive toys
Singapore businessman Adrian Lee Chye Cheng is the super-yacht industry's dream come true. Young, wealthy and passionate about boats, he embodies an emerging market that shipyards and brokers see looming large on the horizon.
"The new market is in Asia," Lee said on one of the panoramic decks of the Ocean Paradise, a 55-metre luxury yacht he and his brother Lionel acquired two months ago.
Wealth among Asia-Pacific millionaires may top North America's as soon as next year, according to a report published last month by Cap Gemini and Royal Bank of Canada. Asians with at least US$1 million in investable assets are set to see their riches climb to US$15.9 trillion by 2015 from US$12 trillion last year, the 2013 Asia-Pacific Wealth Report says.
North American high-net-worth individuals held US$12.7 trillion in 2012.
With rising riches has come an appetite for expensive toys. Take Lee's yacht. With a charter price of US$300,000 a week, the Ocean Paradise was custom-built by Benetti for €34 million (HK$356 million) and was being promoted at September's Monaco Yacht Show - one of the most important in the world for the biggest luxury boats - as a "world of cool".
It has a jacuzzi, a Zen garden, floor-to-ceiling windows, mood lighting, a carbon-fibre dining table and a vintage Space Invaders video game.