The UK-based Boat International Group – which claims to be the leading superyacht media company – has acquired the B2B brand International Boat Industry (IBI) for an estimated £1.3-1.6m – about 1x revenue or 10 x EBITDA. The deal marks the latest twist in the 53-year-old life of IBI and the Brit Nick Hopkinson who has owned it for much of the past 40 years.
IBI was published by Reed International until 1983 when it was acquired by editor-in-chief Hopkinson for all of £30k. Seven years later, he sold it for £1.8m to United Newspapers (subsequently, UBM) and continued as editor-publisher. By 1995, Hopkinson was one of five directors who bought out UBM’s Link House leisure magazines (including IBI). They were backed by Cinven private equity which, separately, had also acquired IPC Media (from Reed), together with the clutch of consumer boating magazines (most since acquired by Future) which had been Hopkinson’s office neighbours a decade before.
In 1998, Time Inc expensively acquired the IPC and Link House magazine companies from Cinven, and Hopkinson found himself again sitting alongside the Yachting World and Motorboat & Yachting teams. That’s where he stayed for another 19 years until 2017 when he and three colleagues (trading as Boating Communications Ltd) acquired IBI for a third time, paying a nominal sum for the assets of the magazine and web site before most of their readers and advertisers had even heard about the parent company’s decision to close them.
The MBO seemed a fitting way for Hopkinson to mark his 50 unbroken years on what still claims to be the only B2B magazine-digital for the global marine leisure industry. He had helped a marine equipment supplier to launch IBI back in 1968 after dropping out of his first year at university. Last year, Boating Communications Ltd (of which Hopkinson has latterly owned 35%) is believed to have made some £140k profit from about £1.5m of revenue (70% print, 30% digital). IBI has doubled revenue in the past five years under the ownership of the management team.
As someone who has devoted his entire professional life to a single, magazine-centric brand, alternately as a sole trader and a corporate executive, Hopkinson is confident about the future of IBI, still under the management of his three partners who are staying with the business. The Boat International people expect IBI to augment their digital services and boost revenue from events. It’s a neat fit.
Boat International – which is owned by a clutch of private equity and high-net-worth individuals including Tara Getty, Charles Dunstone, and Peter Dubens – has had a chequered history, even before the 2020-21 slowdown. Its 2020 revenue of £8.5m and negligible profit was way down on £12.6m (£1.5m EBITDA) in 2019. But, although boat industry events and advertising have been poleaxed by Covid, the pandemic has spurred a global boom in the sales of superyachts (longer than 80ft).
It has propelled the growth of Boat International’s data services, including details of boats under construction and for sale. Its proprietary BoatPro platform, launched in 2018, is said to track 12,000 superyachts and claims to reach more than 6,000 “ultra high net worth” individuals – 38% in North America and 15% in the UK.
A record 1,024 superyachts are said to be under construction, up 25% over the past year. According to Boat International’s 2022 Global Order Book, the average value of a new superyacht is €19m. With shipyards straining to keep up with demand, wealthy buyers are waiting 3-5 years for custom-built boats. Sought-after amenities include “beach club” areas, which provide easy and safe access in and out of the water, and “expedition” yachts, which can travel in harsh, icy conditions.
Glossy print seems alive and well in this luxury market. But we’re guessing that Boat International magazine’s claimed 12,800 readers (25,600 more in the US) are a mere detail in the scramble by advertisers and sponsors to get in front of customers who – the publisher says – have a combined wealth of $3.74 trillion. But who’s counting?
