8 INDUSTRY NEWS CVC Fund invests in D-Marin I


t was recently announced by CVC Capital Partners that CVC Fund VII had agreed to acquire the Greek, Croatian and United Arab Emirates


(UAE) businesses of D-Marin, which operates premium yacht marinas in the Mediterranean and UAE, from the Dogus Group, a leading Turkish conglomerate. D-Marin, which has its headquarters


in Istanbul, Turkey, is an operator under concessions or management agreements of harbour facilities in Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Turkey and the UAE, with several new locations identified across its current geographical footprint and beyond. All marinas in Turkey (Turgutreis, Didim and Göcek) will remain under the ownership of Dogus Group while managed by D-Marin. According to marina consultants Marina Solutions International Ltd (MSI), D-Marin has owned and operated yacht marinas in the Mediterranean since 2003, but it is only recently that the company diversified into the UAE, providing management services to several existing marinas, and most notably the new 1,100 berth Dubai Marina.


MSI assisted with each of the marina’s


technical and operational elements of the acquisition for the team at CVC. The


Overhead view of Dubai Marina in the United Arab Emirates.


scope of responsibility for MSI included undertaking site condition assessment audits of all ten of D-Marin’s marina operations across Croatia, Greece and Turkey. In addition, MSI assisted in identifying potential new marina sites over a period of nine months. István Szőke, Managing Partner at


CVC Capital Partners, said: “As our first investment in the sector, we have been attracted to D-Marin given it is a geographically diversified operator of well-invested premium marinas in the Mediterranean and the UAE. Using CVC’s global network and experience in growing companies internationally, we intend to create the leading global premium marina operating company through both organic growth and acquisitions”. Burak Baykan, CEO of D-Marin, stated: “I am proud of the success achieved by


Pontoon ‘legs’ for Cornish fishermen


A novel solution for the Fishermen’s Docks in Padstow Outer Harbour in the fishing and tourist town of Padstow, Cornwall, has been implemented by Walcon Marine Ltd. Aside from the Inner Harbour, the port itself, located on the estuary of the River Camel, dries out at low tide and Padstow Harbour Commissioners required a pontoon-based berthing system that could safely take the ground at low tide with the fishing boats moored alongside. Above the waterline, the facility


presents as a 120 metre line of System 21 pontoons by the harbour wall in the outer basin. All are decked using commercial-grade GRP mesh grating. What is only revealed at low tide are


the pairs of reinforced 1.4 m steel legs with hinged foot plates that extend out below the pontoons at regular intervals. These are designed to bear the weight of the pontoons, together with foot traffic when the harbour dries out. The harbour floor beneath the pontoons has been levelled to ensure an even surface and packing placed below each foot plate to ensure continuity. This design ensures that the crews of the fishing boats can access their boats safely and conveniently when alongside, whatever the state of the tide. Additional features for these workboat-grade pontoons include an all-round timber skirt to protect the floats except at the quay wall and


MARINA INDUSTRY • FEBRUARY 2020


D-Marin to date. Working with Dogus Group we have put in place a solid foundation, on which we will now plan to build a global group. We are delighted to have secured the support of CVC, a leading global investor, to expand D-Marin internationally and take the company to the next level”. James Beaver, Director of Marina


Solutions International, commented: “We were delighted to have been appointed by CVC Capital Partners to represent their interests, in this, CVC Fund’s first investment in the marina sector. He concluded, “Marina ownership and operations is a specialist business and MSI was well-placed to offer its extensive industry knowledge and experience and assist the CVC team in understanding the intricacies of marina acquisition and ownership”.


three-tonne mooring cleats. “The hard work of consultation, design and grant application had already been organised by my predecessor,” said Bryn Phillips, Padstow Harbour Master. “All I had to do was arrange installation dates with Walcon and until that stage I had no previous communication with them. From the first point of contact with James Walters until completion date, the project was conducted professionally, efficiently and effectively. Communication was exceptional and the whole Walcon team were a credit to themselves and we look forward to working with them again on future projects.” While pontoons with stilts are unusual, Walcon has undertaken a number of such projects previously, including an installation for use by pleasure boats on tidal sections of the River Thames.


Big ideas presented at AMM course


The nine students at the recently completed Dubai Advanced Marina Management (AMM) course presented their group marina upgrade projects to a panel of marina professionals from the UAE on the last day of the course. The three projects involved


upgrades to marinas and boatyards visited during the course. The first project proposed adaptive re-use of existing infrastructure at a superyacht marina to provide crew quarters, the second involved doubling the size of a boatyard to service more yachts and the third put the case for reconfiguring a marina arm to cater for fewer, larger yachts. Farrokh Golchin, Director on the Board of the Global Marina Institute (GMI), was on hand with five others to assess the group projects. He said, “all three projects represented genuine development opportunities. Over just 24 hours, the groups worked incredibly productively to present solid business cases for their upgrade projects”. At the conclusion of the course, the students were presented with their certificates and strongly encouraged to apply for marina certification along with its on-going continual professional development. Colin Bransgrove, CEO of the Marina Industries Association, confirmed that the AMM course was now held every two years in the region and said, “This demonstrates the rapidly- growing scale of the Middle East marina sector”. The next GMI course to


take place in the area will be the Intermediate Marina Management course in Abu Dhabi from 10-13 October.


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