A luxury yacht maker whose vessels have featured in four James Bond films has forecast a return to profits following a surge in orders from ultra-wealthy customers.

Sunseeker said sales leapt 26pc to £268m last year helping it to dramatically narrow losses to £1.9m from £21.2m a year earlier.

The company was bought by Dalian Wanda, a Chinese conglomerate, in 2013 for £300m. Owned by Wang Jianlin, once China’s richest man, Dalian Wanda has interests in construction, property and films, through its shareholding in Legendary Entertainment, which produced the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy.

In its latest results, Sunseeker said: “2022 has been a greatly improved year, with historic levels of future orders, a bounce back in gross margins and further growth in turnover.

“Further profitability improvement is expected into 2023 and 2024 driven by increased boat sales revenue.”

Its Superhawk 55 and 75 Sport Yacht were launched earlier this year at the Dusseldorf Boat Show, picking up further sales, it said. It aims to have more than 20 models on offer as production expands.

Last year Sunseeker said its margins have been squeezed by the disruption of imports of parts caused by Brexit.