Sunseeker confirms its long-term ownership and appoints Scott Millar as CEO, establishing permanent leadership for the British yacht builder's five-year transformation.
Sunseeker International has confirmed Cross Ocean Partners and Cheyne Capital as its long-term owners and appointed Scott Millar as its incoming chief executive officer, bringing greater clarity to the ownership and leadership of one of Britain's best-known luxury-yacht builders.
The announcement completes an ownership transition that began after a proposed acquisition by a consortium led by KCP Holdings failed to proceed in April 2026. Existing investors Cross Ocean Partners and Cheyne Capital subsequently stepped in to maintain the business, support its operations and provide further investment.
Millar will succeed Steve Timms, who has served as interim chief executive during the ownership transition. The appointment also marks Millar's return to Sunseeker after previously acting as interim chief executive and helping to formulate the company's five-year growth plan through advisory firm Teneo.
The change is accompanied by several senior appointments covering commercial strategy, corporate transformation, information technology and board leadership. Together, the new ownership and management structure is intended to support an enterprise-wide transformation of Sunseeker's products, operations and commercial organisation.
The latest announcement concludes a turbulent period during which several different ownership and management arrangements appeared likely to determine Sunseeker's future.
In November 2025, Cheyne Capital and Cross Ocean Partners provided new capital to support Sunseeker's longer-term operations. Receivers were appointed over shares in Sunseeker Investments Limited, an indirect parent company, although the yacht builder said the arrangement did not affect its normal day-to-day business.
A consortium led by KCP Holdings, in partnership with Lionheart Capital, was then announced in March 2026 as Sunseeker's prospective new owner. The proposed arrangement involved the purchase of the company's existing debt followed by the acquisition of all its shares.
That transaction would also have introduced Andrés Rubio as permanent chief executive. Scott Millar, who had been serving as interim CEO since December 2025, was expected to step down as part of the transition.
The position changed again in April when KCP was unable to complete the agreed debt purchase and share acquisition within the required timeframe. Sunseeker said the consortium had not finalised its funding arrangements in time, and Rubio therefore did not take up the chief executive position.
Cheyne Capital and Cross Ocean Partners instead retained the existing holding structure and announced their intention to take ownership of the yacht builder, subject to the necessary approvals. Former chief operating officer Steve Timms was appointed interim CEO while a permanent leader was sought.
Confirmation of the two investment firms as long-term owners now provides a more settled structure from which Sunseeker can implement its strategic plan. It also removes some of the uncertainty created by the unsuccessful KCP transaction and the succession of interim and proposed management appointments.
Millar's appointment is particularly significant because he is already closely connected with the strategy he is now expected to implement.
He originally became involved with Sunseeker through Teneo, the advisory firm engaged during the company's financial restructuring. Millar served as interim chief executive following the departure of Andrea Frabetti in December 2025 and was involved in creating a five-year growth plan covering operations, product development, the supply chain and the commercial organisation.
During a presentation at boot Düsseldorf in January 2026, Millar described the plan as a business-wide programme intended to return Sunseeker to full momentum. Priorities included improving procurement and supply-chain performance, upgrading digital manufacturing systems, expanding the global dealer network and investing in site infrastructure and workforce development.
His knowledge of both the strategic plan and the financial circumstances surrounding the business appears to have been central to his selection. Sunseeker said Millar's experience with complex corporate transformations, together with his contribution to the five-year plan, made him a natural candidate to lead the company.
Millar described Sunseeker as one of the marine industry's most admired names and pointed to the scale of the opportunity ahead. He said the company has a clear vision, ambitious growth plans and shareholder support to invest in its products, workforce and brand.
The appointment should provide continuity between the restructuring phase and the intended period of investment. Rather than bringing in a leader who must first become familiar with the plan, Sunseeker is placing the executive who helped devise it in charge of delivery.
Steve Timms will remain an important figure during the transfer of executive responsibility. He became interim CEO in April after the proposed KCP acquisition fell through and has overseen the business while ownership arrangements and the permanent leadership structure were finalised.
Timms has spent more than 25 years at Sunseeker, having joined the company as an electrician in 2000. He subsequently held positions including business operations manager, production director and chief operating officer before assuming temporary responsibility for the entire business.
His appointment provided operational continuity at a time when Sunseeker was dealing with the collapse of the proposed takeover, changes among senior executives and the implementation of a new corporate strategy.
Sunseeker has indicated that Timms will hand over to Millar during the coming months rather than departing immediately. This should allow the incoming CEO to retain access to Timms's extensive production and operational knowledge while the new management structure becomes established.
Timms said the company had deliberately avoided rushing the permanent appointment. He credited Millar and the Teneo team with creating the five-year plan already guiding Sunseeker and described him as someone with the commitment and experience required to provide stability and lead the next stage of growth.
The ownership and CEO announcements have been accompanied by four other senior appointments intended to strengthen different areas of the company.
Andy Gawthorpe has been appointed chief commercial officer. His previous experience includes serving as global sales director at Aston Martin and spending seven years with Triumph Motorcycles, where he was involved in a period of record sales growth.
Ian Morgan becomes chief strategy officer. He has almost two decades of experience in strategic transformation across the automotive and premium-consumer industries and has already worked with Sunseeker's leadership on its developing superyacht strategy.
James Grove joins as chief information officer after holding senior technology positions at Chelsea Football Club and Southampton Football Club. He will be responsible for Sunseeker's digital-transformation programme, an area likely to extend from manufacturing and internal systems to customer and dealer services.
Former Jaguar Land Rover chief executive Adrian Mardell has been appointed non-executive chairman. His experience leading a major British luxury manufacturer is relevant as Sunseeker seeks to improve production performance while protecting the quality, heritage and customer experience associated with its brand.
The appointments suggest that the transformation will not be limited to financial restructuring. Commercial development, corporate strategy, digital systems and manufacturing leadership are being addressed simultaneously, reflecting the scale of change required to deliver a multi-year growth programme.
Sunseeker has spent much of its history building performance-oriented motor yachts, but its renewed strategy places greater emphasis on larger vessels and the superyacht sector.
The company has already begun work on the first hull of the Sunseeker 134 Superyacht at its dedicated Osprey Quay facility in Dorset. The yacht represents Sunseeker's return to the market above 40 metres, with the first hull sold to an American client and scheduled for launch in 2027.
The design was further developed during the early part of 2026, with changes to its exterior proportions, glazing, deck arrangements and beach-club configuration. The project sits alongside a wider programme of new-model development intended to refresh the Sunseeker range and increase its competitiveness in established and emerging markets.
Building larger yachts requires more than increasing the dimensions of an existing production model. A shipyard must manage longer construction cycles, greater customisation, more complex classification requirements and deeper relationships with owners, designers and specialist subcontractors.
Sunseeker's investment in supply-chain management, digital manufacturing and production infrastructure will therefore be important to the success of the 134 programme and any future additions to the superyacht range.
The appointment of Ian Morgan as chief strategy officer is also directly connected to this objective. His previous work with the company's leadership on the superyacht strategy indicates that the programme is intended to remain a central part of Sunseeker's long-term direction rather than a single experimental project.
Sunseeker has said that its transformation is already under way across its commercial, product and operational divisions. The new shareholders are expected to support the programme with investment in the brand, workforce and product range.
The company plans to reveal a refreshed brand identity and several new product concepts at the 2026 Cannes Yachting Festival. This will provide the international market with its first substantial indication of how the five-year strategy is likely to affect future models and the wider positioning of Sunseeker.
Cannes will also offer an opportunity for Millar and the expanded leadership team to reassure dealers, owners, suppliers and employees following the changes of the previous year. Stability will be judged not only by the identity of the shareholders but by the company's ability to maintain production, deliver existing orders and turn planned concepts into commercially successful yachts.
For the British marine industry, Sunseeker remains an important manufacturer, exporter and source of skilled employment. Its operations support a broader supply chain extending through marine equipment, engineering, interiors, logistics and professional services.
Confirmation of Cross Ocean Partners and Cheyne Capital as long-term owners does not by itself guarantee the success of Sunseeker's transformation. It does, however, provide a clearer ownership structure, a permanent chief executive who understands the existing plan and a strengthened leadership team charged with putting that strategy into practice.
After several months of competing transactions and temporary appointments, attention can now move from determining who controls Sunseeker to whether the company can deliver the products, operational improvements and sustained investment on which its next chapter depends.
The principal source for this article is the Sunseeker ownership and leadership announcement reported on 28 July 2026 by Powerboat News. Background on the failed KCP transaction was checked against Marine Industry News, while the five-year growth strategy was checked against its report from boot Düsseldorf 2026.