I have been told by a friend, a specialist in insolvency that twenty two Queensland charter companies are on a potential insolvency list.
When you consider the current situation its probably just stating the obvious but it was still a shock to hear it.
This is terrible news for those personally involved.
I am also concerned for my fellow boat owners who may have similiar boats to those that may be auctioned as a result of these potential insolvencies become a reality. This insolvency specialist suggested we will start to see the asset sales beginning in September.
If you have a similar boat to ones that are generally chartered and have been considering selling, sooner rather than latter is worth some thought.
Or they could have a PPSR registration!
And welcome to my world!
It does not help that in Australia we used different wording to Canada and NZ in the the relevant section.
Your friend is right however, late September will very busy as the COVID restrictions run out and the deferment of BAS will have expired.
You may well see a further deferment there or job keeper extended given unemployment numbers.
There is a bright side however, from a revenue perspective, the GST base have grown by billions as Covid requirements have annihilated the cash economy but nobody has been able calculate by how much.
My local service station even has a sign up saying "We still take cash"
A very large %age of the charter operators are heavily reliant on the backpacker market which has devalued it over the years. What caused that to happen was the airline strike way back in the early 80s.
The churn rate of yachts into and out of the charter business is another indicator of the instability of the charter business.
I was in it from early to mid 90s and just couldn't turn a profit even then. The dream of a "lifestyle income " is exactly that, a dream.
Southace was in the business for some time and could no doubt offer some insights.
If anybody is thinking they could pick up a cheap charter yacht and go into the charter business, they are not really thinking.
If anybody is thinking they could pick up a good cheap yacht I suggest they take a walk around Abel Point Marina and observe how poorly maintained and flogged to death most charter yachts are.
