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Corta-pega:

Richard Hadida has announced the purchase of Oyster Yachts and all of its subsidiaries after the luxury boat builder went under in February

The British luxury yacht builder stopped production in February with the loss of some 380 employees at its UK sites at Southampton and Wroxham in Norfolk after the Dutch private equity firm, HTP Investments, announced it would no longer continue to financially support the company.

Hadida is now forming a management team, led by Oyster stalwart Paul Adamson, who captained Eddie Jordan's Oyster 885, LUSH in the Oyster World Rally in 2014. Kim Stubbs, who was responsible for turning around the fortunes of Sunseeker, has also been brought in.

Hadida, who regularly sails on LUSH, told Yachting Monthly he has used his own personal fortune to buy Oyster and all of its subsidiaries, including Oyster Palma and Oyster Newport in the USA.

"Every part of the business, including brokerage and chartering, I plan to bring back to life,' he noted. 'I am not looking to flip it, there is no exit planning, I am in it for the long run, it will be a lifetime business."

His first priority will be on the 26 customers whose Oysters were in build when the company closed its doors.

"We are hoping to start employing people as of tomorrow. At the moment, we have boats in every stage of build from the mould to almost complete and we need to get people on these boats and building them fast. I want to get those yard doors open and start building boats again," stressed Hadida.

Adamson added that the 26 customers with Oysters in build will get exactly what they ordered.

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