New brokerage Matterhorn launches summit bid
Papadakis (left) and Fraser launch new superyacht brokerage house Matterhorn.
Staying in the swanky Swiss ski resort of Zermatt but lunching over the hill in Cervinia in Italy gives you the best of both worlds. A historic, quaint, car-free base full of wooden chalets plus generous but affordable Italian hospitality. It works the other way too. The towns are separated by a ridge, on which stands the mighty Matterhorn or Monte Cervino in Italian.
The two resorts, which share the peak in their DNA, excel in their own way. But combine the two ski areas and you get an entity bigger than the sum of the parts.
Kurt Fraser hopes that’s the case with the new Monaco-based brokerage house and advisory he has launched with Adam Papadakis. They have called it Matterhorn.
“The pairing of a broker like Adam, who has been really successful and has all the correct traits, with me who brings that international business strategy, that’s quite a coupling,” says the former chief commercial officer of Hill Robinson.
“We really think that when we combine those two elements of our backgrounds we can come up with something that is stronger than its individual parts.”
‘Like chewing glass’
The duo say they have experienced “all the different iterations” of brokerages and believe there is an opportunity for a “next-generation” business that “delivers brokerage differently”.
“We recognised an opportunity for a better structure that has better intelligence, better knowledge, better systems, which then translates to making better decisions and achieving better outcomes for clients,” Fraser tells us.
Papadakis, who was recently head of sales at Moravia Yachting, laughs as he recalls Elon Musk’s line about founding a start-up being like “chewing glass and staring into the abyss”.
He concedes there is a mountain to climb but insists the time is right, admitting it is “nerve-racking but super exciting”.
“I’ve been in the business long enough to feel quite ready and keen to do so, despite the challenges, of course,” he tells us on route from Monaco to Greece.
“There is very strong competition and barriers to entry but I like that, that’s what drives me, otherwise I wouldn’t be a broker in the first place.”
‘Lone wolves’
Fraser explains how Matterhorn will be “free of the constraints” of larger houses or the “small business nature” of boutique brokerages.
“Matterhorn will remove all those impediments and provide the tools, the knowledge, the intelligence in order for the brokers to transact successfully,” he says. “It will be a pure-performance business model that will benefit the client and broker alike.”
To use an F1 analogy, it will be like a team providing the equipment, the know-how, the data and the analysis to help drivers win races, he suggests.
“We think this is going to be really attractive to brokers who share our approach,” adds Fraser.
The company says it will cater for sales, charter, yacht management and consultancy, acting as a “trusted long-term partner focused on delivering measurable value and better decision-making”.
Trying hard to resist any more literal associations with the word Matterhorn, Fraser did concede, “glaciers move slowly”.
“We’re going to take that approach,” he says. “This is going to be built in a very purposeful, very strategic way. We are looking to attract people who share our values and ethos and perspective.”
Underserviced wealth
Expanding on the pledge to provide “better intelligence”, Fraser suggests the gap is not the availability of data as much as the “deep” understanding of how to interpret it and “turn it into better decisions and outcomes for clients”.
“Which gets into the sales coaching territory,” he adds. “There is not really a focus on the coaching and methodology of connecting with individuals and how to handle referrals in an intelligent way and access networks. That’s something we’re going to pay a lot of attention to.”
Papadakis adds: “There is so much wealth out there which is underserviced or not serviced at all. There is so much business to be had by good, competitive brokers.”
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Papadakis has spent more than 25 years in yachting, including nine years as a broker at Camper & Nicholsons. One of the most significant moments in his career was as a project manager for Burgess on the construction of the 133m Al Mirqab, built by Kusch Yachts in Germany in 2008.
“I was involved from the very beginning, from contracts, specifications, negotiations with the yard, meetings with the owners and lawyers; it was like an all-round 360-degree approach,” he says. “It was the pinnacle for a young chap like me.”
‘Biggest risk’
t also sparked desire to move into a transactional role.
One of his “most complicated” deals was for the 78m Abeking & Rasmussen-built Amaryllis last summer. He represented both the buyer and the seller and closed the deal within one month.
“It was truly fascinating, how the whole thing developed across different jurisdictions, different countries, keeping the transparency and trying to keep everyone focused, with so many complications,” he says. “Not everyone can do that. It teaches you about staying humble, staying focused on what you’re trying to achieve and about keep pushing until the very end.”
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The guiding principles he will take into Matterhorn are “staying true to your values, discretion, transparency, consistency and persistence”.
“And being able to understand the client and being able to listen, not just imposing what you think is right,” he says.
His vision is to become a “centre of excellence” and “one of the most trusted” brokerage and advisory houses.
Fraser concedes the brokerage landscape is “highly, highly competitive” and “full of amazing brokers and companies that have capabilities”.
“The biggest risk for us would be to somehow get folded in with everybody else, another house doing the same thing without the substance behind the differentiation,” he says.
“We have to be different in a tangible way, otherwise we’re just going to be the new colour on the dock.”
With its dizzying exposure on all sides, Matterhorn climbers know much about staring into an abyss.
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