A Southampton yacht builders is reported to have gone into liquidation with the loss of more than 150 jobs.
According to reports in the trade press Oyster Yachts, based at Saxon Wharf in Northam, has gone under.
An official statement from the company is expected today.
The news has come as a shock to the yachting world as the firm seemed to be riding high having just launched its new Oyster 745 at the Dusseldorf boat show last month. The 745 had been named 2018 Best Luxury Cruiser by the US magazine Cruising World.
Oyster's website also carries an announcement that it had ended 2017 with a record orders amounting to more than £80 million and had recently publicised the progress of some new moulds for their Oyster 825 and 895 models.
Dutch investment firm HTP Investments are rumoured to have withdrawn financial support for the company.
HTP Investments BV bought the company for just under £15 million in 2012 from Balmoral Capital.
The Oyster Group is made up of Oyster Marine Ltd, Oyster Brokerage Ltd and Southampton Yacht Services Ltd and has offices in Ipswich, Wroxam in Norfolk, Mallorca and Newport Rhode Island.
Some industry sources suggest that Oyster may have lost large sums dealing with structural defects identified following the loss of Oyster yacht Polina Star III, which lost her keel and sank off the coast of Spain in 2015.
The yacht was recovered from the seabed and Oyster had since been working with independent experts and the owners' insurance company to examine the wreck.
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