MYS 2012: Interview with Martin Bellamy, owner of Marina Port Vell

By Paul Joseph

Two years ago Salamanca Group saw enough potential in Marina Port Vell, located in the heart of Barcelona, to purchase it with the intention of transforming it into one of the world’s best superyacht marinas.

Speaking exclusively to Superyachts.com at this year’s Monaco Yacht Show, Martin Bellamy of Salamanca Group, an investment and advisory company, discussed his ambitions for the marina, and why he feels the superyacht industry is a fertile ground for his company to explore.

“Salamanca Group, we think, is a unique business proposition,” he told Shari Liu. “We are a merchant banking and operations risk management business, and from a merchant banking point of view we focus on investing in what we call tangible assets.

“We have four key markets: Brazil, Europe, Africa and China. We’re very focussed on assets that we can touch and feel and see and understand, so real estate and mining are at the core of what we like to invest in.”

So what is the background to the relationship with Marina Port Vell?

“We were introduced to Marina Port Vell by a contact of the business,” he said, “and when we looked at the assets we thought that it’s in such a superb location, which when you’re dealing with real estate is everything.

“When we did our feasibility, in terms of transforming the marina, we realised that the yachting industry and especially the superycacht end of the industry is growing at a fairly rapid pace. And there’s a shortage of berthing space and there’s a shortage of, I think, quality service related to marinas and berthing.

“So we thought it was a good opportunity where we thought we could add value. I hope in terms of the development of Salamanca that we can look for other opportunities and perhaps that side of the business.”

You can watch the full video interview with Martin Bellamy above this article.

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By Paul Joseph