Superyacht sales and service company Burgess, has been acquired by investment firm Ancient.
Burgess was founded in 1975 by Nigel Burgess and been led since 1992 by CEO Jonathan Beckett.
Burgess offers full-service solutions in yacht brokerage, charter, new construction, management, crew services, and insurance.
The company operates globally with 18 offices in key yachting hubs including London, Monaco, New York, and Miami, as well as in Asia and the Middle East.
“Partnering with Ancient gives Burgess the resources, scale, and creativity we want to accelerate our leadership position in the industry, without compromising our independence or our culture,” explained Beckett.
This partnership empowers us to invest further in technology, talent, and the evolving needs of our clients.
Jonathan Beckett
“This partnership empowers us to invest further in technology, talent, and the evolving needs of our clients, while remaining true to the values that define Burgess,” added Ian Armstrong, Burgess’ managing director.
The firms say the partnership reflects a shared belief that clients at the highest levels expect more than service; they expect stewardship, insight, and a relationship built on trust over time.
To that end, Burgess’ senior leadership team will remain in post to lead the business into the next era.
“Burgess represents the highest standards in the superyacht industry,” said Loren Easton, Ancient’s head of private investing.
Service intensive businesses
“Burgess’s enduring legacy, global reach, and commitment to service align perfectly with Ancient’s mission to invest in category-defining platforms built for the long term.”
The acquisition reflects Ancient’s focus on investing in specialised, service intensive businesses that cater to the increasingly sophisticated lifestyles of ultra-high-net worth individuals.
And the investment firm said the partnership also reinforces Ancient’s broader investment philosophy of ‘masterpieces, not many pieces’, which emphasises building a select number of high-impact platforms that benefit from ‘deep alignment, long-term capital, and operational excellence’.
