Raja Ampat Yacht Broker
Buy a charter yacht or liveaboard business in Raja Ampat
A Raja Ampat charter business for sale is four assets in one transaction: the vessel, the operating company and its permits, the brand and its distribution, and the forward booking book. The desk runs buy-side acquisition — diligence on earnings, permits, deposits and crew — before any price is agreed.
Why buyers acquire operations rather than hulls
Building a liveaboard brand from a bare vessel means a season or more of licensing, agent relationships, review history and crew recruitment before the boat earns properly. Acquiring an operating business compresses that to a handover. You inherit an occupancy record, agents who already sell the product, and guests who already booked. The trade-off is that you also inherit the company’s past.
What a credible acquisition pack contains
- Vessel file. Class and statutory certificates, survey and refit history, machinery hours, dive plant inventory.
- Corporate file. Company structure, shareholding, licences, tax position and any foreign-ownership constraints on the activity.
- Permits. Everything required to carry paying guests in the areas the brochure sells, and evidence they survive a change of control.
- Trading record. Occupancy and rate by season, cancellation history, and the split between direct bookings and agents.
- Deposits and forward book. Departures already sold, cash already received, and who is contractually obliged to deliver those trips after closing.
- Agent and OTA agreements. Commission terms, exclusivity, and whether the contracts assign to a new owner.
- Crew. Contracts, tenure, certifications, and the retention plan through handover.
- Brand assets. Domain, marks, review profiles, photo library and mailing list — often the least documented and most valuable item on the list.
The number that matters
Sellers present revenue. Buyers should underwrite earnings. Between the two sit fuel, crew, park and permit costs, agent commission, maintenance reserve, dry-dock provision and the marketing spend that produced the bookings in the first place. A model that omits a dry-dock reserve is not a model. The desk builds the buyer’s own operating case from source documents, then tests the asking price against it — the same discipline described in the charter business financial model.
Structuring the deal
| Point | Buyer position worth holding |
|---|---|
| Deposits held | Cash for departures after closing should transfer with the obligation, or the price should reflect that it did not. |
| Completion conditions | Survey outcome, permit confirmation and key-crew retention as conditions, not as post-closing hopes. |
| Handover period | A defined period with the outgoing operator, with the scope written down. |
| Non-compete | The seller should not relaunch the same product in the same strait the following season. |
| Warranties | Concentrated on permits, undisclosed liabilities and the accuracy of the booking book. |
Related routes
If you would rather buy the asset and build your own operation, start at dive liveaboards for sale. If you want the business but not the daily running of it, pair the acquisition with vessel and charter management. Ownership and company structure for foreign buyers is covered in the foreign buyer’s guide.
Investment advisory across the wider ecosystem — vessel classes, cruising grounds and operating models beyond Papua — sits with maritime investment advisory.
Talk to the broker desk. Tell us the vessel type, the cruising ground and the budget band in USD, and we will come back with what is genuinely available and what it will take to close.
Frequently asked questions
What am I actually buying in a liveaboard business sale?
Four things that are priced separately: the vessel, the operating company and its licences, the brand with its distribution and reviews, and the forward booking book with the deposits already held. A deal that only transfers the hull is a boat sale, not a business sale.
Share purchase or asset purchase?
A share purchase keeps permits, contracts and booking history intact but carries the company’s history with it, including liabilities. An asset purchase leaves the history behind but frequently means re-applying for licences and re-signing agents. Which is right is decided by what the permits are worth.
How is a charter business valued?
Usually as the vessel’s standalone value plus a multiple applied to sustainable operating earnings, adjusted for the deposits held on future departures. The defensible part of the number is the earnings evidence, which is why the diligence pack matters more than the pitch deck.