Luerssen has built some of the biggest boats in the world, including Rising Sun, a 138-meter vessel owned by movie and music billionaire David Geffen. It features a wine cellar, movie theater and basketball court, and is the 10th-largest yacht in the world, according to Superyachts.com. The company also built Octopus, a 126-meter vessel with a nightclub and two submarines, for Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, and this year completed the world’s largest superyacht, the 180-meter Azzam.
Running Oceanco is al-Barwani’s part-time job. He’s the chairman and owner of Muscat, Oman-based MB Holding Co., a closely held energy conglomerate that is one of Oman’s biggest non-state controlled companies. The business operates in oil and gas exploration, drilling services and mining, and had sales of $1.3 billion in 2012.
Al-Barwani has a net worth of at least $1.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He declined to comment on his fortune.
Oil Engineer
The billionaire created his first company in 1982, while working as an oil engineer with Petroleum Development of Oman. He ran the 60-person construction business for three years, until he was approached by an oil drill bit vendor who was looking for a supplier in Oman.
He quit his job and transformed the money-losing construction business into MB Petroleum Services, an oil industry supplier that counted PDO as its first client. He faced little competition while he expanded in the Middle East, and acquired companies in Asia and Australia, making the business one of the world’s largest closely held oilfield contractors.
Al-Barwani, who studied in the U.S and the U.K., spends half his time traveling for business. He was shopping for a new boat in 2009, when an investment banker suggested he consider buying Oceanco, which was founded in 1987. The billionaire traveled to Alblasserdam and discovered a bustling boat-building operation.
Superyacht Contracts
“I wasn’t planning to buy a shipyard,” he said. “It’s so far away from my business, but I thought I’d look and learn something about shipbuilding. It excited me.”
Oceanco has sold seven yachts between 85 and 110 meters since the beginning of 2012, and has orders that will keep its workers occupied through 2016, the billionaire said. Each vessel takes at least four years to build. There are only 15 to 20 known contracts for new superyachts longer than 100 meters, according to Merijn de Waard, managing director of SuperyachtTimes.com.