Britain’s biggest luxury yacht-builder sold to new private equity backers 15 years after it last changed hands.

Plymouth-based Princess Yachts, Britain’s largest luxury boatbuilder, has been sold to a US-based private equity firm.

Princess Yachts was put up for sale in 2022 by the private equity group L Catterton, as a string of the world’s most valuable private vessels were being seized by governments clamping down on their sanctioned Russian owners.

Princess Yachts has now confirmed that KPS Capital Partners has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a controlling equity interest in the business.

It is said to have a robust order book and roughly £300m in annual revenue.

Princess’s boats have become symbols of luxury among the world’s super-rich, although during the pandemic, it negotiated a cash injection from its controlling shareholder, as well as a refinancing of its debt.

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