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I don't think this has yet been reported hereabouts so here's a link to the Sunday Times article: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Finance/article1495733.ece
Premier Marinas for sale
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nimbusgb
Well-Known Member
Cue a 15% rise in mooring fees
E39mad
Well-Known Member
Maybe the outlook is not good (certainly appears to be the sentiment on here) and time is ripe to get out now.
For those in the know are there many or increasing number of empty spaces in these marinas?
For those in the know are there many or increasing number of empty spaces in these marinas?
dom
Well-Known Member
Yes in the 11/12m category, but there is a steadily growing waiting list for 14m+ in many of their marinas - so much so that a space re-configuration in favour of bigger berths is being considered in some of their marinas.
Angele
Well-Known Member
Let's hope someone like Camper & Nicholson buys it (hot on the heels of the new Cowes marina). The worst possible outcome would be the loss of competition if it ended up in the hands of MDL, or even Dean & Reddyhoff
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Very little chance of that I would say - Competition Commission would intervene.
Steve Clayton
Well-Known Member
Please, please. please!!!!
NOT Castle Marinas!!!!!!
NOT Castle Marinas!!!!!!
Twister_Ken
Well-Known Member
Do you think marinae even make it onto the Competition Commission's radar?
Angele
Well-Known Member
+1. It would be the last thing they would be concerned about. For the limited resources they have these days, marinas are too niche to worry about.
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Yes, know so for a fact.
mainsail1
Well-Known Member
Another highly geared buy out that does not make financial sense followed by three years of increased charges to cover interest payments plus asset sales all over the place followed by collapse when boaters vote with their feet over the new charges. Capitalism at it's finest!
dom
Well-Known Member
Fully agree about CC, but not sure it matters much. European and US anti-trust organisations typically view five mainstream competitors as the minimum level consistent with openly competitive markets, by which yardstick the UK’s SE marina industry already represents a prima facie cause for concern. Moreover, the pricing power of this monopoly/oligopoly(term no longer widely used) is further enhanced by the fact that the supply of marina berths in the SE is highly constrained; i.e. a scarce resource.
The big advantage of a monopoly in these circumstances is that a single firm or a small group of firms face the aggregate demand curve of the market, which is downward sloping. This downward-slope places a monopolistic company in a totally different position to a firm operating in a perfectly competitive market; if the monopoly increases its prices, demand falls, but it does not fall to zero. A monopoly can therefore optimise its revenue stream and profit by its ability to increase prices an order of magnitude higher than a perfectly competitive market would allow.
The UK’s SE marina business does seem to, superficially at least, exhibit the main characteristics of a profit maximising monopoly. The bad news is that we all pay more. The good news is that I’m not sure it matters much who buys Premier.
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laika
Well-Known Member
If that happens I wonder how everyone who still calls Gosport marina "Camper's" will feel? Pleased because they never had to change what they called it or upset because their terminology no longer identifies them as a local?
Resolution
Well-Known Member
Are you trying to describe the current ownership (by a property investment fund) or to predict what might happen in the future? Or have you just been reading too much of the Daily Mail?
Angele
Well-Known Member
There does at least appear to be some kind of competition at the moment around annual renewal time between Premier and MDL. After all, when interest rates are as low as they are at the mo, why else would MDL offer you a 3% discount for paying by 15 Jan if it isn't to secure your business from the competition?
mainsail1
Well-Known Member
dom
Well-Known Member
That's an interesting point and Premier offer the same deal. You might be right that competition is the driver, but on the other hand these early payment discounts might simply reflect prevailing bank charges. I'm inclined to suspect the latter as UK banks find it hard to profitably offer money much less than 4% at the moment (except to large corporates), e.g. even on mortgages with LTVs of 60% or less. In the absence of guarantees I wouldn't be surprised if Premier found themselves paying in the region of 5.5% for their bank funding, in which case the 3% discount would make commercial sense.
That said I can't see any heroic price rises if the UK economy confounds expectations and starts to slip next year, as I personally think it will. Marinas will slowly start to empty and their "monopolistic" operators will realise that current prices are pretty close to their profit maximising optimum.
OceanSprint
Well-Known Member
Sorry to be a dense northerner - but up here many marinas are run by the local Council. is that not the case 'daan south? Are there any Council-run marinas?
Tranona
Well-Known Member
Not of any size. You need to remember that most S Coast marinas are in areas where there is a shortage of space and competing demands for that space so generally councils do not see it as part of their remit to generate economic activity. many of the marinas in other parts of the country are part of regeneration activities using redundant commercial facilities which are not attractive to commercial operators without incentives, so councils have developed the sites.
Angele
Well-Known Member
Actually, for MDL the price for paying by 15 Jan is 6.2% less than the monthly instalment rate. And, if you reckon that the monthly direct debit is, on average, equivalent to 6 months credit period from 31 March (or 8.5 months from 15 Jan) then the 6.2% "discount" equates to an APR of around 8.75%.