Chinese tycoons team up, sell James Bond's favorite yachts to super-rich pals

China's super-rich who have made big fortunes over the past few decades in business are now keen to acquire ultra luxurious assets after already buying so-called "hard luxury" goods like Hermes bags and Patek Philippe watches.

Some mainland businesspeople are now positioning themselves to profit from the aspirations of "new money" in the world's No 2 economy.

Charles Zhang, the founder and chairman of Sohu.com one of the mainland's top three internet portals, recently made a deal with British luxury-yacht maker Sunseeker for two reasons: his love of boats and to make it easy for his rich Chinese friends to buy their first yacht.

Zhang, one of the mainland's richest men, recently spent tens of million of US dollars to buy the sales and distribution rights in China of Sunseeker, whose yachts can be seen in James Bond movies, according to two people familiar with the matter. Zhang's office declined to make a comment about the personal investment.

According to a statement on Sunseeker's website, Zhang became a "shareholder of strategic significance" in July last year. The sources noted that Zhang's move to control all official distribution channels of Sunseeker yachts in China deepened his ties with the company.

Sunseeker, founded in 1968, is the largest yacht maker in Britain. It produces 300 vessels per year. Its yachts are priced between £400,000 (HK$4.8 million) and £21 million. The number of high-net-worth individuals, who are classified as those who have at least US$1 million in investable assets, on the mainland grew 14.3 per cent last year to 643,000, more than five times the number in Hong Kong, according to a recent report by Royal Bank of Canada.

Zhang's deal with Sunseeker came around the same time that Dalian Wanda, a Chinese property developer run by one of the mainland's richest men, Wang Jianlin, agreed to pay nearly HK$4 billion for 91.8 per cent of Sunseeker. The management of Sunseeker holds the remaining shares.