As Burgess honours its 50th anniversary in 2025, its Asia chapter is celebrating its first decade of operations, with a win at this year’s Yacht Style Awards and a party in Singapore among highlights.
In 2020, Jean-Marc Poullet shared that the Burgess operation in Asia had secured 12 superyacht transactions in the five years since he co-founded the regional chapter of the global brokerage house. This year, as the Asia division celebrates its 10th anniversary, Poullet was happy to share with that his team recently completed their 40th transaction of the past decade.
Just as significant as the number of transactions is the size of yachts that Burgess has helped buy or sell for its clients in Asia over the past 10 years, with the yachts averaging about 53m in length – and including six above 75m. This is significant, even on a global scale.
The scale of the yachts Poullet and his team are buying and selling is also one of the reasons Burgess won the ‘Global Brokerage in Asia, Above 40m’ category at this year’s Yacht Style Awards in Singapore. The gala dinner at ONE°15 Marina Sentosa Cove was held on the eve of the Singapore Yachting Festival, and provided a fitting place to honour the company’s achievements.
“It’s always nice to receive an award, but it’s more rewarding to see the team’s hard work help deliver the best-possible results for our clients, making successful transactions and charters happen,” says Poullet, who was joined on stage by colleagues including Mark Woodmansey and Hwee Tiah – his first two hires after setting up the company a decade ago – and Monaco-based Jiyu Xie.
“We officially launched our Asia operation in April 2015 at ONE°15 Marina Sentosa Cove, during the then Singapore Yacht Show, so we had our 10-year celebration at the same marina during this year’s Singapore Yacht Festival. The marina has a special place in our hearts.”
TEAM BUILDING
Poullet, who keeps his 33m yacht at ONE°15 Marina, has been based in Asia since 1993. He became Burgess’ Chairman for Asia after retiring as a Senior Partner of McKinsey & Company, following more than 25 years of advising leading Asia-based businessmen and entrepreneurs, skills that helped him transition to the superyacht industry.
“I feel great pride in what the Asia team has become and collectively achieved, rising from a start-up in 2015 to be the clear superyacht industry leader in Asia 10 years later. We were fortunate enough to help transact some very large yachts by global standards, something that I was not expecting when we started the [Asia] business 10 years ago,” Poullet says.
“It was a unique opportunity to build this Asia operation in partnership with Burgess, which is truly a world-class firm with very talented yachting professionals and unequalled expertise. I’m grateful to all the clients who trusted us to assist them with their yachting lifestyle and helped us grow our business over the years.”
The Belgian is quick to acknowledge the power of the brand, with Burgess long established as one of the world’s leading superyacht brokerages. Furthermore, Burgess’ head offices in the likes of Monaco and London have played a pivotal role in the success of the Asia chapter, helping to ensure the team is integrated into its work practices and adopts Burgess’ company values.
“The benefits of working with Burgess are very important, from brand recognition as a global leader to its exceptional accumulated experience and expertise over 50 years,” he says.
“There’s also a great global spirit of teamwork that makes colleagues work together across geographies and departments to provide the best-possible advice and service to customers. In Asia, we’ve adopted the same teamwork values, and work closely with our colleagues globally. It also just makes doing business more fun and interesting that way.”
Even so, Burgess’ close-knit Asia team has achieved a lot in just 10 years. Poullet hired Woodmansey and Tiah in the middle and end of 2015 respectively, with the pair joining him as the brokerage house’s most familiar faces in Asia.
Based in Hong Kong since 2003, Woodmansey spent over a decade with Simpson Marine before joining Burgess, holding the title of Head of Brokerage, Asia since 2018. Tiah is Burgess’ Head of Charter and Business Development for Asia, the Singaporean having formerly worked in the shipping and marine insurance industries.
“It has been great to see Mark grow into a top superyacht broker by global standards and certainly Asia’s most successful superyacht broker,” Poullet says. “Hwee’s roles evolved rapidly from marketing to business development to now heading our charter department. She’s great at building strong relationships and keeps a wide network of close friends in Asia’s yachting and luxury industries.”
The core leadership team for Asia is completed by Xie, who has been part of the ‘fab four’ since 2022, when he took on the role of Yacht Fleet Manager and New Build Advisor for Asia. Based in Monaco, he has been with Burgess since 2018, having obtained a Master’s in Maritime Engineering at the University of Southampton and spent 12 years with Lloyd’s Register in China and the Netherlands.
“Jiyu came to us with very strong maritime and yachting technical background, focused primarily on Lloyd’s certification of Amels new builds yachts. As the Fleet Manager for Asia, he manages yachts from 35m to over 100m. Collectively we combine about 60 years of superyacht industry experience, and coordinate Burgess’ Asia business in close collaboration with the global departments.”
WIDENING NETWORK
As well as solidifying its core leadership team, Burgess has steadily widened its network of Associates across the region in addition to Japan-based Lyu Kamikage, who has represented Burgess since 2010. Since 2019, that network has also included Julian Chang in Singapore, and Boat Lagoon Yachting for Thailand, with Vrit Yongsakul and Alister Brunskill.
More recent appointments include Anju and Gautama Dutta of India’s Yacht Solutions, Edwin Ho of Hong Kong’s Starship Yachts, and Leo Yang of Wanda and Shanghai Yachting Prestige in mainland China.
“Our Associates are all very experienced Asian yachting professionals, typically representing global leading brands in their market, and each with their network of clients, more active in the sub-30m range. They all have business values like ours and are nice people to hang out with,” Poullet smiles.
“Occasionally, they have clients who want to upgrade to larger yachts or charter a large yacht, so we collaborate with them to advise and assist their clients. It’s a very synergistic relationship.”
Poullet says Burgess has not only survived but thrived during the post-COVID era. 2023 stands out as the company’s strongest year to date in Asia, with four very large yacht transactions headed by a 92m Oceanco, an 85m Lürssen and a 75m Amels.
Last year was also a good year, with its four transactions comprising a 55m Amels, 42m Custom Line, 42m Sanlorenzo and 29m Princess, while a 28m Sanlorenzo new build and 40m Princess have been among transactions this year.
“Our strategy and focus have remained the larger yachts segment and providing world-class yachting advice and services to our Asia customers anywhere in the world,” Poullet says. “Moving forward, we plan to be more active in the 30-40m segment in closer collaboration with our Associates, adding resources in our team to identify and market high-quality yachts in this segment.”
As Poullet and his team prepare to lead Burgess’ Asia operation into its second decade, the regional yachting market is in a soft state, especially when compared to the Covid surge. In addition to China’s economic challenges, there are also fresh global geopolitical challenges around the globe, including conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, as well as volatile US trade strategies.
“Inevitably, the current macro-economic and geo-political challenges are slowing down the growth of Asia’s yachting market. However, any industry in Asia has always been made of ups and downs, with more ups than downs, and yachting is no different,” Poullet says.
“If I look back over our first decade, I guess I was hoping the Asia superyacht market would develop a bit faster. While there has been continuous steady growth, we’ve not yet seen the acceleration the region’s potential could justify. For the coming five to 10 years, I see the Asia superyacht market set to continue its slow but steady growth.”