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CMYK *ETD120311//02/K/1* *ETD120311//02/K/1* ETD120311/1R1/02/K/1 *ETD120311//02/Y/1* *ETD120311//02/Y/1* ETD120311/1R1/02/Y/1 *ETD120311//02/M/1* *ETD120311//02/M/1* ETD120311/1R1/02/M/1 *ETD120311//02/C/1* *ETD120311//02/C/1* ETD120311/1R1/02/C/1 FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW DELHI, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012 08 Business Street W ITH the national capi- tal region (NCR) and Delhi housing a large number of high net worth indi- viduals (HNIs), the belt is begin- ning to see some aggressive marketing by yacht dealers. After BMW, Mercedes and private jets, yacht ownership is next step to add zing to one’s status symbol. Pilot’s licence is also passé. The rich are flaunt- ing their wealth with yachts. NCR is neither a coastal region, nor is there an inland waterway that could support the boating industry (the Yamuna here is considered more of a drainage than a river). However, for yacht dealers, NCR is one of the hotspots which is buzzing with prospective buyers. “Delhi-NCR, at present, might not be where a major chunk of our business comes from, but we definitely think that this is going to be one of the biggest markets in the coming years,” said Sujay Chohan, director of Ocean Blue —one of India's largest boating group, with varied interests across dealerships, charters, yacht management services and marina development and main- tenance. Anju Dutta, managing direc- tor Marine Solutions added that the contribution of this region to their business is still very small in the range of 5 to 10 per- cent. “But there is more aware- ness regarding boating and we expect that in year 2012-13 queries will start converting into sales,” she said. Ms Dutta said that “Bombay still remains the main market followed by Goa. The new mar- kets are Kochi, Bhopal, Kolkata and Odisha.” SHALLOW WATERS According to industry players, there is a significant increase in the number of enquiries from people residing in Delhi-NCR. However, they lament that apart from a few, not many turn into actual sales due to various factors such as the ab- sence of a place to keep their yachts. Interestingly, lack of in- terest or limited buying poten- tial is not a reason. “We are sure that there is no dearth of potential buyers. It has more to do with how and where they will use boats and yachts,” said Aashim Mongia, managing director of West Coast Marine Yacht Services. “I think with more aware- ness on usage, a ma- rina to station and manage yachts would trigger sales.” Even coastal cities like Mumbai and Goa lack marine infrastructure that is the prime reason for the not-so-impressive sales figure in the region. “Lack of marine in- frastructure at any of the coastal cities is a big put-off for prospec- tive buyers,” said Mr Chohan. “There are no marinas in Mumbai or any other city ex- cept in Kochi. Because of this, people are not sure about the safety of the boat if they buy it,” he added. Ocean Blue developed the marina at Kochi and main- tains it for Kerala Tourism Development Corporation. “A lot of people from Delhi have holiday homes in Goa. They like to keep the boats while vacationing,” said Ms Dutta. “However there is now interest to own and keep yachts in Bombay for corporate use and entertainment. We provide full maintenance and manage- ment services for the full year in Mumbai, Goa, Cochin and Calcutta,” she added The dealers believe that un- like buyers in Mumbai, Delhi- NCR residents cannot keep a check on the condition of their boats personally, which makes them wary of investing a huge amount on these water beau- ties. “With the development of marinas across the country, we definitely will see a better re- sponse from Delhi-NCR,” said Mr Chohan. “With so many HNIs present in the region, it is one of the most potential future market for us.” SIZE MATTERS However, Mr Chohan said that Delhi-NCR as a market for boat- ing industry will be different from Mumbai. “The Delhi-NCR market will not be as big as Mumbai when it comes to the sheer number of deals. But the size of the deals could be amongst the highest. Most of them will be over Rs 10 crore,” he said. According to Mr Mongia, “Most of the buyer’s are first time buyers. The most preferred segment is 20 to 50 feet (ft) length size of high-speed boats to luxury yachts. There have been a few selected instances where individuals who bought yachts 8 to 10 years ago, are now upgrading to large size yachts.” “We expect the Indian mar- ket to grow more on 20 to 50 ft LOA (length over all) segment for next 5-7 years and at the same time there could be few selected larger size purchases of 100 ft plus size,” added the MD of West Coast Marine Yacht Services. The 18 to 25 ft boats cost anywhere between `6 lakh to `60 lakh. Whereas the bigger super luxury yachts, in the range of 40 to 100 ft, will come with a price tag of `5 crore to `100 crore. HIGH TIDE Players are also gauging Delhi-NCR’s potential as a yacht market by looking at the demand for boat chartering services. Most of the dealers also provide boats on charter service too. They say that char- tering of boats by corporate and HNIs is very common and shows their interest in in- dulging in leisure boating. However, “It is not easy to deter- mine the contribution of char- tering service in the entire size of the boating industry, as it is still unorganised,” said Mr Chohan. Inbound tour companies and high-end specialised event man- agement companies are also on the look out for this service. He said that at present the boating industry is worth around `500 to `700 crore but it is set to grow at a phenomenal rate. “The in- dustry could be around `5,000 crore in the next few years,” said Mr Chohan. One of the reasons cited for envisioning such a bright future of the industry is the demogra- phy of India. “In the coming years, India will have more than 500 million people under the age of 25 and even if the econo- my grows at six percent, there will be quite a few people who will be in a position to shell out big bucks for yachts and cruis- ers, which are already a status symbol,” he added. Experts say that though India approximately has a massive 20,000 km of waterfront, in- cluding a coastline of 7,600 km, it is still a small market for the boating industry. “As far as boating is concerned, India is starting from ground zero,” said Mr Chohan. Until recently, sales were happening only in Mumbai. It is only in the last 3-4 years that boating industry has steadily grown beyond the Mumbai shores. “We have now sold boats in Goa, Cochin, Port Blair, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Kolkata, Dhamara, a few places in Gujarat, Kerala and some in- terior places,” said Mr Mongia. “At present, Mumbai still ac- counts for 70 percent of the sales and the rest is coming from other cities,” added Mr Mongia. [email protected] RNI NO 57252/93, Published by K.C. Jain for & on behalf of the Owners Times Publishing House Ltd. at Times House, No 7, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, New Delhi – 110103 and printed by him at The Times of India Press 13 and 15/1, Site IV, Industrial Area, Sahibabad (U.P.). Consulting Editor: Shivendra Kumar Singh. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the Publishers is prohibited. Yacht Business to Set Sail in NCR Aashim Mongia Managing Director West Coast Marine Yacht Services As pilot licence becomes passé, super rich of NCR go for yachts turning the region into a prospective market for niché dealers, says J Srikant Continued From Page 1 MAJOR challenges facing the biometric indus- try in Noida, however, are the disorganised nature of the industry, lack of awareness, limi- tation of usage to basic functionalities, absence of domestic biometric manufacturing capaci- ties and insufficient number of comprehensive solution providers. “The biggest problem for the domestic bio- metric industry is the Indian mentality of buy- ing cheap products at the expense of quality. This has led to market being flooded with cheap Chinese products at attractive prices that not only attract clients but also local small biometric shops sell to earn better margins. Presently, the ratio of genuine (domestic and foreign brands) to Chinese products in the market is around 35:65,” says Mr. Verma The government is the largest buyer of bio- metric devices and high-end security solu- tions. However, with the influx of multina- tional companies and large enterprises, the biometrics industry has been exposed to a new evergreen market. Low Domestic Manufacturing Hurting Growth Prospects Anju Dutta Managing Director Marine Solutions
