George Delaney, Cargo Valuation Analyst at VesselsValue, has noted that the auction of Russian billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky’s sanctioned vessel, Axioma (LOA 72m, July 2013, Dunya Yachts) was the first such publicly forced sale of an oligarch-owned superyacht since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. As such, its pricing level would be a matter of considerable interest (IMN August 22nd )
At the time of the sale the auction of Axioma represented the 13th S&P transaction involving vessels with an LOA greater than 70m in 2022.
Brokers pushed this vessel for about $70m back in 2018, but the sale price has recently been reported as $37.5m. The yacht has a current VesselsValue of $42.21m, “highlighting how objective market information can be obtained in an industry traditionally labelled opaque and secretive”.
Delaney said that the sale would set a benchmark for other Moscow-linked luxury assets expected to be sent for auction in the coming months.
