Palumbo Group has just invested €11 million in buying a debt-ridden shipyard in Ancona, Italy, that will allow it to triple its construction of luxury superyachts.

The group, which runs the Cospicua shipyard, has had its eyes on the ISA Yachts in Ancona for the past year after the struggling company initiated a procedure to stave off insolvency by paying suppliers and subcontractors a portion of what they were owed.

“Acquiring this historic shipyard is a great opportunity for our group, but more importantly we have decided to save the jobs of all 101 workers, whose livelihood has been in the balance for the past year,” Antonio Palumbo, shipyard CEO, said.

“The unions in Ancona have welcomed the news as the previous company had not been able to secure work since 2013. Palumbo will now be injecting a new lease of life into the sector.”

Mr Palumbo added that this venture would see the group expanding its potential, and create new opportunities, in terms of synergy and professionalism, to allow them to optimise on all the group’s activities.

This latest acquisition sees Palumbo Group’s portfolio - it owns the shipyard in Naples, the former ITM yard in Marseilles and last March it acquired the Santa Cruz shipyard in Tenerife - grow, positioning it to become one of the top leaders in Europe.

“The Ancona shipyard provides our group with very important infrastructure. Before, we could only build one superyacht at a time in our Naples yard, but this enables us to build three to four of these luxury mega yachts at one go,” Mr Palumbo said.

Acquiring ISA Yachts will allow the group to shift its prestigious production of the Columbus range of superyachts - that are bigger than 24 metres - from its Naples facility to  that in Ancona, while tripling its production.

“Our business is growing and this acquisition is the key to that will allow us to be more competitive against the biggest shipyards in northern Europe,” he added.