According to Salvatore Basile, the newly appointed chief executive of Ferretti, the Italian yacht maker, there are the new rich and there are the permanently rich. As the company reels from the global financial crisis, he is pinning his hopes on the latter.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, Mr Basile expressed optimism about the future of Ferretti after its recent near-death experience. But he said a debt restructuring agreement put in place earlier this month, which halved the company’s long-term debt, injected fresh capital, brought a new management team on board and ended Ferretti’s relationship with Candover, the private equity group, was an essential step on the road to recovery, not the end of the journey.