“The interest in Perini Navi is almost a logical consequence of my path. When I read about the bankruptcy I was very sorry. At that point I said to myself that we absolutely had to get into the game.“. It is now mid-February 2021, and this is how Giovanni Costantino, founder and CEO of The Italian Sea Group, expressed his views on the possible acquisition of the shipyard founded in 1983 by Fabio Perini in an interview with Top Yacht Design. Ten months later Giovanni Costantino, through his subsidiary New Sail srl, with a bid of 80 million won Perini Navi at the bankruptcy auction held by the Court of Lucca. (read the article here)
Who is John Constantine
Costantino took over the shipyards in Viareggio and La Spezia, a property in Pisa, Perini Navi USA Inc. and a yacht under construction (it is for Larry Ellison, who already owns a 56-meter Perini Navi, ed.), retaining all the workforce and thus coming into possession of the sailing ship brand that has made yachting history.
John Constantine “the decision maker”
An acquisition marked by decisiveness and dynamic entrepreneurial creativity, traits that distinguish the entire personal and professional history of Giovanni Costantino, born in 1963. At the age of 19, and with a surveyor’s degree in his pocket, Costantino started a business in his native Taranto renovating apartments and stores. He then moves on to custom-made furniture. His Cs Arredi is growing and the furniture he produces is increasingly successful.
He opened first an office and then a store in Paris where he was among the suppliers to the Bibliotèque Nationale de France. Success attracted the attention of Pasquale Natuzzi, the man who in 1959 had started a furniture company that later became the Natuzzi Group, a behemoth with a turnover of 2 billion liras in the early 1990s. Natuzzi wants it. Constantine accepts and takes a new path. In 1997 he sold his company and joined the Natuzzi Group.
After only one year, he is in charge of the R&D Department, and after two more he is general manager and CEO of the Furniture Business Unit. Business management, R&D, design development, organization of the more than 100 stores that market Natuzzi, Giovanni Costantino hits and exceeds all goals until 2008 when the desire to become an entrepreneur again becomes stronger and he leaves Natuzzi.
The field he chooses is yachting where he wants to transfer all his managerial skills and into the world of design. “We have also been able to think and create the beautiful in terms of quality” he told Top Yacht Design referring to his background in the furniture business. “So I wanted to interpret this Italian capability in yachting“.
Entering the boating industry with Tecnomar
And here, too, in an industry as particular as shipbuilding, his entry is under the banner of decisiveness and dynamism. In 2009 it purchased Tecnomar, a shipyard established in 1987 and famous for the sporty layout of its yachts. In 2011, it was the turn of the Admiral brand, born in 1966 from an early 1950s shipyard and a benchmark for refined shipowners. Only a year later, in 2012, it was the turn of Nuovi Cantieri Apuania in Marina di Carrara.
The purchase is strategic, and NCA undergoes major modernization and expansion. Today, NCA Refit with an area of 100,000 square meters, 200 meters of dry docks, shore facilities for all processing, the Celi division for furniture making and a crew village with lounge bar, spa and gym, is the largest refit base in the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, Constantine continues on his path and gives a new dimension to his enterprise. In 2020 it unites the three shipyards into The Italian Sea Group, emphasizing the concept of made in Italy in its name. “Our Italian-ness is in our every expression, even the simplest. It is in every corner of the Yard, like the tricolor. The Italian Sea Group is a creature of mine that I created and developed, as a parent does with their children. He is my fourth child“. The new dimension of The Italian Sea Group for Giovanni Costantino does not stop at the business aspect. Thus, following his passion for art and design, he transforms the Group’s management headquarters into a real art gallery. “We have tried to decline what we have in our DNA in our headquarters. We also thought of expressing this distinctive trait in our workplace, from production to common spaces“.
Passion for cars
Instead, following his passion for cars and Lamborghini in particular, together with the Sant’Agata Bolognese-based company, he launched the design of the Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63, a 20-meter design inspired by the super-car Sián FKP 37, designed in collaboration with Lamborghini Auto and capable of reaching 60 knots. “Lamborghini, like us, represents excellence in its field, it is made in Italy, it is luxury, it is performance combined with technology. And it is a brand that makes dreams come true!“.
The project kicks off in early 2020. On June 24, 2021, the first Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63 built in a new facility entirely dedicated to what is called: the cutting edge of luxury speed boats is launched. The launching is a double occasion of celebration. Just three weeks earlier John Constantine took another step in his journey. On June 4, 2021, in Milan, The Italian Sea Group will go public. And here, too, he hit his target with his Group’s stock closing 7 percent higher than the offer price and with Giorgio Armani entering as a shareholder in addition to designing a new 72-meter Admiral.
A success (gross proceeds from the listing reached 47 million) that, together with a series of bank credit transactions, allow Giovanni Costantino to come out in force at the third bankruptcy auction for the assignment of Perini Navi held on December 23, 2021, in Lucca. And to confront the other suitors for the purchase: the Ferretti Group-Sanlorenzo consortium.
How it went we know. And it is to be imagined that from now on, the history of Perini Navi will also be under the banner of decisiveness, dynamism, and a phrase dear to self-made-man John Constantine: “Beauty is not just a form, but a way of posing and facing life.”
Emilio Martinelli