MB92 Barcelona Secures Lease to 2050, Commits EUR 40m to Yard

A longer lease buys a bigger build programme

MB92 Barcelona has secured a 10-year extension to its Port of Barcelona concession, taking its operating rights out to 2050, with a further five-year extension to 2055 under active discussion and the possibility of additional renewal after a subsequent review. In exchange, the yard has committed to spend more than EUR 40 million between 2026 and 2028 on infrastructure, one of the largest capital programmes in its history. The extension also grants MB92 an additional 4,000 square metres of operating area on top of its existing footprint. None of this is a routine maintenance refresh: it covers a dry dock rehabilitation, new lifting equipment and reinforced quay structure.

Jordi Ariet, MB92 Barcelona's Managing Director, said the extended lease gives the yard the certainty to keep investing in the site to meet client demand in the years ahead. For an owner, that lease length matters as much as the equipment list. A refit yard with only a few years left on its concession is a yard that defers heavy capital spending, which eventually shows up as older cranes, tighter scheduling and less appetite for complex, multi-month projects. A 24-year runway removes that constraint for MB92 through the next two ownership and market cycles.

New Travelifts target the 40 to 55 metre bottleneck

The headline hardware includes a refurbished 220-metre dry dock, a reinforced Western Dock quayside, a new 680-tonne telescopic Travelift serving five hardstanding spaces for yachts up to 55 metres, and a separate 110-tonne electric Travelift for tenders and smaller support vessels. This sits alongside MB92's existing 4,800-tonne Shiplift and 2,000-tonne Syncrolift, which already handle vessels up to 200 metres across berths for roughly 14 yachts up to 220 metres. The new 680-tonne Travelift is aimed squarely at the 40 to 55 metre segment, which is where Mediterranean refit demand has grown fastest as the global superyacht fleet has expanded far quicker than shipyard capacity.

The investment also expands MB92's AiguaNova water programme, launched in 2025, which recovers greywater from a nearby leisure centre for yacht washing, facility cleaning and cooling towers. New wastewater collection and treatment systems are planned to cut freshwater demand as the yard grows. In a Mediterranean port city where water stress and environmental permitting increasingly shape what a shipyard is allowed to build, that sustainability layer is not cosmetic; it is part of what let MB92 secure the extended concession in the first place.

A private equity owner with no minority partner left

The expansion lands five months after Squircle Capital completed full, 100 percent ownership of MB92 Group in March 2026, up from the 77.5 percent stake it acquired in 2019. Squircle Capital's managing partner, John Nery, has said the firm is more committed than ever to the business and sees growth opportunities across the group. MB92 Barcelona is now backed by a single private equity owner with no outside minority shareholder to answer to, which is one reason a capital commitment of this size could move from announcement to signed concession relatively quickly.

For an owner choosing a refit yard, ownership structure is a legitimate diligence question, not a footnote. A private equity owner with full control can fund exactly this kind of multi-year infrastructure programme without a partner slowing it down, which is a genuine advantage when a yard needs new lifting gear or a rebuilt dry dock. The same structure also means investment decisions, pricing strategy and which projects get priority scheduling now run through one capital owner's return targets rather than a founder-led or diversified shareholder base, a shift worth watching as the 2026-2028 build-out proceeds.

How MB92 compares with its Mediterranean rivals

MB92 Barcelona already sits among the largest single refit yards in the Mediterranean, with a total site of around 126,500 square metres, more than 200 staff, and berthing for around 14 yachts up to 220 metres. The closest direct competitor for the 25 to 130 metre bracket is the newer Pendennis Vilanova site, roughly 40 kilometres south of Barcelona, which offers 48 superyacht berths, dry standing for yachts up to 55 metres across more than 20 refit slots, and a 620-tonne hoist. Further afield, STP Shipyard Palma in Mallorca handles vessels up to 120 metres across a 55,000 square metre dry dock area with a maximum lift of 1,700 tonnes, while Marina di Genova and Amico & Co in Genoa both cap out around 130 metres.

None of those yards can match MB92's top end. The 4,800-tonne Shiplift and 2,000-tonne Syncrolift give MB92 a heavy-lift capability that STP Palma, Genoa's yards and Pendennis Vilanova simply do not offer at the very large end of the fleet, which is why owners of 100 metre-plus yachts have few genuine Mediterranean alternatives to MB92 for a full dry-dock refit. The new 680-tonne Travelift narrows the gap in the mid-size bracket too, putting MB92's 55-metre lift capacity roughly in line with Pendennis Vilanova's newer facility, but backed by a much larger surrounding campus of paint, mechanical and joinery shops.

What owners should ask before booking a slot

Neither MB92 nor the outlets covering the announcement have published day rates or a per-metre refit price list, so owners should treat any cost estimate as an industry range rather than an MB92 quote. Across Mediterranean yards generally, annual maintenance periods run in the region of EUR 2,000 to 8,000 per metre, and a mid-life refit typically falls between EUR 10,000 and 30,000 per metre, though final pricing depends heavily on scope, paint system and how much structural or mechanical work is involved. Booking practice across the region's top yards, MB92 included, runs 12 to 24 months ahead of a major project, and brokers generally advise starting those conversations 18 to 24 months before the desired refit window.

Because the EUR 40 million programme runs through 2028, an owner scheduling a major refit in that window should confirm directly with MB92 whether the construction phase affects yard access, dock availability or project timelines during their stay, and should have that written into the contract alongside the usual warranty and liability terms. The new Travelift capacity will phase in as each element of the build completes rather than all at once, so an owner hoping to benefit from the added 40 to 55 metre slots should ask MB92's planning team when specific equipment goes live rather than assuming it is available from the announcement date.