Cross Ocean and Cheyne complete Sunseeker takeover, Millar is CEO
The lenders ended up owning the yard
Sunseeker International confirmed on 28 July that Cross Ocean Partners and Cheyne Capital have formally become its long-term owners and shareholders, the transfer of ownership now complete. Both were lenders before they were owners, having put money in through the restructuring that began in mid-2025. In March the yard announced something different: a consortium led by KCP Holdings, with Lionheart Capital, was to buy the debt from those same lenders and then the shares. On 9 April Sunseeker confirmed the consortium could not finalise its funding in time. The two credit funds said they would keep the existing holding structure and take the company themselves.
Cross Ocean Partners, founded in 2015, manages around USD 12.2 billion; Cheyne Capital, launched in London in 2000, is one of Europe's larger alternative managers. Neither is a boatbuilder. They own one of Britain's best known yacht brands because a sale process failed underneath them, which is a different thing from a strategic buyer paying up for the name.
A chief executive who has already had the job once
Scott Millar takes the chief executive's role permanently, and he is not a new face at Poole. He first sat in the chair in December 2025, as interim chief executive after Andrea Frabetti left, and stepped aside in March when the KCP deal was to install its own leadership. Under that plan Andres Rubio, formerly chief executive of Intrum, was named permanent chief executive. Rubio never took up the post, because the deal behind it never closed.
Steve Timms ran the business as interim chief executive from April. He has spent more than two decades at Sunseeker, latterly as chief operating officer. Timms said the owners had taken their time deliberately: 'It was important to us not to rush the appointment of a permanent CEO. We wanted it to be someone who truly cares about this brand.' He credited Millar with writing the five-year strategic plan the new team will be measured against. That is four names attached to the top job in eight months.
A board assembled out of car brands
The bigger signal is not the chief executive but the people placed around him. Adrian Mardell, who comes from Jaguar Land Rover, takes the chair as non-executive chairman. Andy Gawthorpe becomes chief commercial officer after a spell as global sales director at Aston Martin and seven years at Triumph Motorcycles. Ian Morgan joins as chief strategy officer, having worked with the leadership team on a new superyacht strategy, and James Grove arrives as chief information officer. Sunseeker called it one of the biggest investments in executive talent in its history.
The intent is plain. This is a luxury consumer transformation team rather than a shipbuilding one, and its instincts will be dealer networks, brand pricing, model cycles and residual values. That fits Sunseeker, which sells through a global dealer network in a way a Dutch custom yard never has. Whether the approach produces better boats is a separate question, and only the next few hulls will answer it.
What it means for a boat in build or on the market
For an owner the practical value of this week is certainty rather than strategy. A yard stuck in an unresolved sale loses suppliers, slots and skilled staff, and those losses reach the boat. Poole is still building: the first 94 Yacht, the 28.6-metre model that sold hull one off a 2024 concept, reached the water this month with hulls two and three under way. A named owner, a named chief executive and a funded plan give a buyer weighing a delivery slot what the market lacked in April.
It matters on the used side too. A brokerage Sunseeker is priced partly on the confidence that the yard will still be there to honour warranty work and supply parts in ten years. That confidence has been thin since the restructuring began, and the discount for it never shows up as a line on a listing. Completion removes the worst case from that calculation, which is the most useful thing in the announcement.
The exit that has not happened yet
Credit funds are not permanent owners of anything. When they stepped in during April the two firms said they would keep investing while seeking permanent new ownership, and nothing announced this week reverses that. The job handed to Millar and Mardell is to make Sunseeker worth buying: a stable order book and a story about the top of the range. An owner should read the five-year plan as a sale prospectus that has not been printed yet.
Two milestones are worth watching. Sunseeker has said it will show a rebrand and several new product concepts at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September, the first public test of the new team's taste. The second is Morgan's superyacht strategy, because a credible return above 40 metres would firm up values across the older big Sunseekers. If neither lands, the yard is a well-run brand waiting for its third owner in three years.