Billionaire Pinault Family Doubles Down on Cruising With Aqua Deal

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(Bloomberg) — François Pinault, the billionaire behind such brands as Gucci and Balenciaga, is amping up his investments in an industry far outside fashion: cruising. Ten years after the Pinault family’s private investment company, Groupe Artémis, took ownership of French cruise line Ponant—which has 13 ships best known for sailing throughout the Arctic and Antarctic—it has bought a majority share in Aqua Expeditions, a boutique luxury line known for exploring Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago and the Peruvian Amazon in high style.

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Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the announcement was made in mid-January. Aqua Expeditions’ Peruvian founder Francesco Galli Zugaro remains a shareholder and is staying on to run the brand.

The Aqua acquisition is a small one in terms of assets: The Singapore-based company has just five ships, all with capacities of 40 passengers or fewer. But the move represents a significant step toward increasing the Pinault family’s stake in the luxury cruise industry.

It comes at a notable time. On the one hand Pinault’s rivals, Bernard Arnault and LVMH, are doubling down on luxury resorts and travel experiences—mostly on land, though their investment in the Orient Express brand includes what’s set to be the world’s largest sailing ship, expected to debut in 2026. On the other, luxury hotel brands are investing in yacht-inspired, small-ship cruising, with Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and Aman all building their own versions of “floating hotels.”

With the Aqua acquisition, Artémis is committing itself to further growth in cruising. That’s according to Hervé Gastinel, a businessman and yachtsman who joined Ponant as chief executive officer in 2021. He was brought in by Pinault and his son François-Henri, who co-runs Artémis, to get the cruise line back in the black after the industry’s Covid shutdown. Gastinel says the Pinaults’ goal is to double Ponant’s revenue by 2028, though he didn’t disclose specific figures.

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“After Covid there was obviously a reshuffling of the landscape of this industry,” Gastinel says, speaking to Bloomberg onboard Ponant’s 270-passenger Le Commandant Charcot. “A lot of cruise companies are open for cooperation, acquisitions, investments.”

Titans of Cruising?

Although small ship cruising to remote places is a niche market, the Pinaults want to be as recognized in that arena as Kering SA is in fashion. “We can build leadership in that segment,” Gastinel says. (Despite its reputation for leading luxury retail brands, Kering has struggled financially in recent years, with Gucci’s 2024 fourth quarter sales down 24%.) 

The Pinaults thought Gastinel was the right person for that job thanks to his track record scaling small companies: As CEO of leading pleasure craft company Groupe Beneteau, he led a four-year growth period that saw revenue increase from €970 million to more than €1.3 billion.

Now Gastinel is scaling Ponant, aiming to fast-track growth through more acquisitions. He considered buying Hurtigruten Expeditions, he says, but that company’s five ships, which top out at about 500 passengers, felt too large. The ideal ships, Gastinel says, max out at 300 guests.

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Even that would be large for Aqua and Ponant. Both fleets compete more with private yachts than, say, megaships with dinner buffets. And they are more expensive than some charters, too. At the top end, Ponant’s 15-night North Pole sailings start at $50,000 per person, and more than double that for the top suite—caviar, Champagne and Alain Ducasse-designed dinners included. Aqua’s ships can be even pricier. The 16-passenger Aqua Mare, the world’s first superyacht in the Galapagos, charges around $30,000 per person for seven nights in its sprawling Owner’s Suite. Cabins on Aqua Blu, a separate 30-passenger ship that explores Indonesia’s biodiverse Raja Ampat region, start at about $10,000 per person for seven nights.

Gastinel says Aqua and Ponant are natural siblings. “We can build some interesting bridges between the two companies,” he says, adding that tropical and polar destinations make for nice combinations.

In addition to the Ponant ships, the company separately markets the one-ship line Paul Gauguin Cruises in French Polynesia, acquired in 2019. And Ponant’s revenue includes full-ship charters by such prestigious tour operators as Abercrombie & Kent and Smithsonian Journeys, including in Antarctica.

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Growth Mode

Ponant inherits Aqua in growth mode; a third ocean ship under construction is set to explore the outer islands of the Seychelles and Tanzania’s Zanzibar Archipelago. And Ponant is building new ships, too. Last spring it added its first six-cabin sailing catamaran, Spirit of Ponant, to explore areas such as Corsica and the Seychelles (a newly hot destination); Gastinel says more may follow.

Then there’s river cruising, another area where Gastinel and Artémis want to double down. “There are a lot of beautiful rivers in the world that are still unspoiled and fit for expedition,” Gastinel says, pointing to the Zambezi as one option. “That’s where we want to grow and launch the next generation of ships.”

But competition will grow alongside Gastinel’s ambitions. Take Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.: It announced last month that it will also expand into river cruising with its upscale Celebrity Cruises brand, with 10 initial ships expected to sail around Europe starting in 2027.

Onshore Developments

The Pinaults’ focus on cruising will, ironically, extend onto land and even into the air.

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“We want to offer our guests a product that includes pre- and post-cruise stays, flights and so on,” Gastinel says, outlining a plan that would make Artémis’ cruise line a full-fledged tour company. “That is the direction we are following.”

As for Gastinel’s biggest challenge? It isn’t money.

Aware of the ironies of operating in remote and fragile landscapes, he’s committed to growing the company’s sustainability efforts. In 2030 or thereabouts, he hopes to debut the world’s first net-zero-carbon ship, a 594-foot vessel that will carry about 200 passengers and operate on wind and sun energy combined with non-fossil-fuel-powered batteries. It would be a prototype for additional ships, so Gastinel is looking for a multi-ship deal.

But amid a busy growth period sectorwide, many European shipyards are already maxed out with orders from other lines. Trying to be at the forefront of sustainability is one thing; construction bandwidth, it turns out, is another.

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