News of the acquisition of Cantiere delle Marche by Austria-based FIL Bros Family Office came as something of a surprise in the yachting industry. CdM has been quietly growing it’s product range and market profile since it was founded by Ennio Cecchini and Vasco Buonpensiere  in 2010. Following the management buy-out, the two co-founders now have a 25 percent share of the company (Cecchini has always been a shareholder, whereas Buonpensiere sold his 9 percent share in 2014 before buying back in). Photo: Justin RatcliffeTo find out more about the acquisition, we spoke with Buonpensiere, now CEO of CdM, as he was preparing to fly to the US to close another new-build contract. We began by asking about the timing of the buy-out.  

VB: The first reason was that our major shareholder, Gabriele Virgili, was principally a silent investor with a core business in frozen foodstuffs. And with the energy crisis and currency markets as they are, he was looking to take a step back and focus on his family company. 

The other reason is that Ennio and I have very clear ideas about where we want to take the company. We’d been thinking about a management buy-out, but it was all in our heads until we started talking with Tom Schröder of FIL Bros at the start of 2022. Tom is building a Flexplorer 146 at CdM and is…