Privilege Shipyard up for auction

Italian boatmaker Privilege Shipyard has been put up for auction almost three years after the yard’s CEO and one board member were placed under house arrest on fraud charges in 2015.

The 12ha shipyard in Civitavecchiais is now listed on online auction house gobid.it. The shipyard has been valued at €9.4 million and offers under €7.52 million will not be considered, according to the listing.

The deadline for sealed bids for the shipyard is 19 April and all submitted bids will be opened and evaluated on 20 April. This follows on from a number of unsuccessful auction attempts made since the yard’s CEO Mario La Vie was arrested in 2015.

The Civitavecchia Law Court holds the rights to the 11 buildings on site along with three electrical substations. Also mentioned in the bid are conditions related to the ownership of Privilege One – a 127 metre megayacht that started construction in 2008 – where construction will continue on the yacht for six months after the bidding process.

The company was founded in 2006 and started work on its debut megayacht Privilege One in 2008. The yacht was initially scheduled to launch in 2012 but construction was halted that year when one of the yard’s key financial backers, Banca Etruria, withdrew funding. The private investment bank was acquired by Italian banking group UBI Banca in May 2017.

Mr La Vie and the shipyard’s financial director Antonio Battista were arrested in 2015 after being accused of using company funds to buy €25 million in real estate and a selection of luxury cars.