Coffee with olivier besson

He came to Hong Kong in 2005 as an automotive engineer. His lifelong passion for boats and his love of Asia led to the creation of Asia Yachting in 2007, with a mission of offering a range of yachts for fun on the water. The 10-year-old company also brought wakesurfing to Hong Kong and has recently entered the budding secondhand yacht market

Can Hong Kong's secondhand yacht market be compared to its secondhand luxury car market - meaning that when a new model comes out, customers here have to have it?

Yes, that's very much the case. One of the reasons we wanted to develop the secondhand market was to revitalize the market for new yachts. Hong Kong is a very, very mature market and a great many yacht owners want to upgrade or buy the newest model, but obviously they also want to be able to resell their current boat. So we're present in both markets - we help them get rid of their existing boat and then we sell them a new one. There's generally a secondhand clientele in Asia; some of our boats leave Hong Kong. It's the biggest boating center in Asia, with the largest fleet, and this generates interest.