Royl.Boskalis Share Discussion Threads

[ariane] 01/6/2010 19:58

Boskalis: Synergies From Smit Takeover Might Total EUR10 Million
AMSTERDAM (Dow Jones)

Royal Boskalis Westminister NV (BOKA.AE) estimates that synergies from the acquisition of Smit Internationale NV (SMIT.AE) might total around EUR10 million, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

"EUR10 million is an indication," the spokesman said, adding that Boskalis will give more details at the presentation of its half-year results in August.

The spokesman also confirmed that Boskalis might get EUR100 million to EUR200 million in additional orders from its LNG project offshore Australia.

-By Eelco Hiltermann; Dow Jones Newswires; [phone], [e-mail]

[grupo guitarlumber] 22/5/2010 14:12

Dutch firm picked for Sydney dredging

By LAURA FRASER Cape Breton Bureau
Fri. May 21 - 4:53 AM
SYDNEY - Although the funding for the project has not yet been secured, the Sydney Marine Group announced Thursday the company from the Netherlands that it hopes will start dredging the harbour this summer.

The group spearheading the commercialization of Sydney Harbour chose the bid from Royal Boskalis Westminster last month, but had kept the firm's name secret until Ports Day.

Harry Sanders, an international contracting director from the company, told reporters he sees great potential in developing the port.

"If you look at all the ports here on the East Coast . . . a lot of ports need maintenance dredging," he said.

"Apparently you don't need maintenance dredging here. That's bad news for (Royal Boskalis Westminster), but good news for Sydney."

Jim Wooder, of the Sydney Marine Group, said he feels that the company's international reputation helped seal the decision to choose the firm for the dredging.

It has done projects in about 50 countries, including work on the Panama Canal.

The plan is to deepen the harbour to about 16 metres so that the largest possible cargo ships could berth here.

Two shipbuilding companies have also expressed an interest in setting up business at the port, Wooder said, but each need it to be greater than the current depth of 11 metres.

Royal Boskalis Westminster hopes to begin clearing the harbour of debris and a shipwreck in June. The dredging is scheduled to begin in August and be completed by November.

A dredging boat called a suction hopper would vacuum up large quantities of sand from the sea floor and store it in a tank onboard. It would then expel the sand through a pipe to an area near Point Edward, where proponents hope it could be used as a base for a $200-million container terminal.

But the timeline for the contract to go ahead has a very limited window. It has already been extended once to see if Ottawa and the province will come forward with funding.

Sanders said it would be extremely difficult to push the acceptance of the contract past the May 28 deadline.

"If you have to extend it again and again . . . it can have many cost consequences," he said.

"Full planning is very important. So I wouldn't say May 28 is D-Day, but I'd say we'll stick to it for the moment.

"But if one government comes forward on the 28th of May and another said it needs four days more . . . who am I to say no?"

( [e-mail])

[grupo guitarlumber] 22/5/2010 08:31

Boskalis to construct LNG port in Poland
News - May 21, 2010

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Royal Boskalis Westminster NV has been awarded a contract for the construction of a new LNG port at Swinoujscie near Szcecin, Poland. The total contract value is approximately €170 million with Boskalis' share amounting approximately €75 million.

The contract was awarded by the Maritime Office of Poland and Boskalis will act as the lead contractor in a consortium including Hochtief Construction A.G. (Germany), Per Aarsleff A/S (Denmark) and Doraco (Poland). Work is set to commence mid 2010 and is due to be completed by the end of 2012.

To allow the port to accommodate large vessels, Boskalis will create a turning basin and deepen the access channel. A total of more than 8 million cubic metres of sand will be dredged. Furthermore, Boskalis will construct a 3.3km breakwater to protect the port.

The project will be executed with a combination of small to large sized trailer suction hopper dredgers, floating cranes and dry earth moving equipment.

[waldron] 21/4/2010 11:19

Dutch dredging contractor Boskalis continues to improve safety record
News - April 21, 2010

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Dutch dredging contractor Boskalis says that despite high levels of activity thoughout 2009, what it called its "constant attention and effort" enabled the company to further improve safety levels last year.

"Lost Time Injury Frequency, our leading safety indicator, registered a further drop in 2009, from 4.7 to 3.7," said the company.

"It is our ambition to play a leading role within our sector with respect to safety. In order to achieve this we have commissioned the internationally renowned agency BST to conduct a safety review of our organization and take stock of our customers'
opinions and views on the subject."

"Based on the outcome of this review we will update our overall safety policy in the course of 2010."

[waldron] 20/4/2010 16:04

do 15 apr 2010, 17:45 Twingly blog zoekenJouw blog hier

ABN Amro verhoogt koersdoel Boskalis door onze redactie
AMSTERDAM - ABN Amro heeft het koersdoel van baggerconcern Boskalis opwaart bijgesteld van €30 naar €37.

[waldron] 20/4/2010 13:38

source: Dredging news online

kalis: company's strategy paid off in 2009
News - April 20, 2010

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In its latest review of activities in its review of 2009, Dutch dredging contractor Boskalis says it achieved what it called an "excellent result" in 2009 thanks to its policy of policy a broad geographical spread of activity over the market segments in which it operates, including offshore oil and gas, ports, and land reclamation and coastal orotection.

"In the oil and gas segment we completed construction work on the Ras Laffan LNG terminal in Qatar, as well as the LNG port in Angola. Meanwhile, we started work on part of the Nord Stream pipeline linking northern Germany and Russia, as well as a pipeline in Magellan, Argentina," said Boskalis in its Annual Review 2009.

"in the ports segment, construction work started on Maasvlakte 2 in the Netherlands - a project that will run until the end of 2012. In Abu Dhabi, we continued to work with our subsidiary Archirodon on constructing the new Khalifa Port, involving extensive and complex cutter and rock work. In Australia, the celebrations at the end of November to mark the completion of the Channel Deepening Project, which we executed in alliance with the Port of Melbourne, attracted keen media interest."

"In the land reclamation and coastal protection segment, work in The Netherlands was concentrated on reinforcing the sections of coastline known as the 'Zwakke Schakels' (Weak Links), including the Delfland Coast."

"In Russia work continued on the St Petersburg Barrier, the retractable storm surge
barrier designed to protect the city from flooding. In the Maldives preparation work started for the reconstruction of three islands which are to be raised in order to protect the local population from rising sea levels."

"Execution of all these projects stretched the organization and its people to the limit," said Boskalis. "A lot of hard work was done: on site, aboard our vessels, at the
office and in the market - and it paid off!"

"Although market conditions deteriorated, revenue rose 4 per cent to a record high of EUR 2.2 billion and profit was EUR 227.9 million - only 3 per cent less than the
figure - net of extraordinary items - achieved in the record year 2008," said the company.

[ariane] 14/4/2010 09:30

Boskalis Says 97% Of Smit Internationale Shares Are Tendered
AMSTERDAM (Dow Jones)

Dutch dredging company Royal Boskalis Westminster NV (BOKA.AE) said Wednesday that it has acquired over 97% of Smit Internationale NV's (SMIT.AE) share capital.

MAIN FACTS:

-Boskalis said that during the post closing acceptance period that ended on 13 April 2010, 413,905 shares were tendered for acceptance under the offer, representing 2.25% of the shares.

-The total number of shares held by or tendered to the Offeror as per the end of the post closing acceptance period amounts to 17,875,269 Shares, representing 97.32% of the total number of shares.

-Boskalis announced to make a cash offer for all issued and outstanding shares in Smit at an offer price of EUR60 per share.

- By Amsterdam Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; [e-mail]

[grupo guitarlumber] 07/4/2010 08:49

source: maritime journal

Record revenue as profit falls at Boskalis
06 Apr 2010

Boskalis has been successful at winning large projects in markets including Australia and South America.
Although in 2009 the net profit of Dutch dredging giant Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. fell to €227.9m from €249.1m the year before revenue was up to a record €2.2bn and was widely spread, both geographically and across all market segments.

The net profit figure of €227.9m includes a €35.3m exceptional gain on the stake held in Smit Internationale N.V. and an exceptional impairment charge of €39.7m (after tax) relating to the older part of the fleet.

In 2009 Boskalis was awarded new orders worth €1.8bn. As a result, the company was able to end the year with a strong order book of €2.9bn, even with a record revenue and amid difficult market conditions.


Boskalis CEO Peter Berdowski said, '2009 was an excellent year for Boskalis despite the difficult market conditions. We have thereby benefitted from our broadly spread and well filled order book, an adequate execution of the projects and our disciplined contracting policy. In addition, over the past year we were successful in acquiring projects in the high end of our markets in, amongst other regions, Australia and South America.

'The global recession has also affected our industry and although to date the impact on Boskalis has been limited, we are preparing ourselves for lower volumes of work and lower margins. The implementation of our fleet rationalization program will improve our cost structure and thereby boost our position in the market.

'Despite the current market conditions we look forward to 2010 with confidence in the light of our well-filled order book and the fleet rationalization programme we have launched.'


The global market for dredging and maritime infrastructure is driven by factors such as growth in world trade, the global population, energy consumption and the effects of climate change. Following a period of robust growth, this growth trend came to an end in late 2008.

While the structural long term growth factors for dredging and maritime infrastructure remain positive, Boskalis reported the short term outlook has become markedly less certain since early 2009, as a consequence of a lower oil price, lower demand for natural resources and stagnating global trade.

This deterioration in market conditions has clearly had a visible impact on Boskalis' products and services. Customers are taking a critical look at their plans, the award of projects is taking longer and margins in certain of its markets are under pressure.


Boskalis is in the final phase of a longterm capital expenditure program, meaning that the investment level will decline over the next few years. In the next two years the company expects annual capital expenditure of around €150m to €200m.The company anticipates that 2010 earnings will be lower than the level achieved in 2009, disregarding the effects of the potential completion of the merger with Smit.

[ariane] 03/4/2010 09:54

mid-April 2010 - Publication of 2009 Annual Report


12 May 2010 - Trading update on first quarter of 2010


12 May 2010 - Annual General Meeting of Shareholders


14 May 2010 - Ex-dividend date


18 May 2010 - Dividend record date (after market close)


1 June 2010 - Final date for stating dividend preference - cash or stock


4 June 2010 - Determination and publication of conversion rate for stock dividend


9 June 2010 - Date of dividend payment and delivery of shares


19 August 2010 - Publication Half Year Results 2010


18 November 2010 - Trading update on third quarter of 2010

[ariane] 30/3/2010 07:59

Boskalis: 94% Of Smit Internationale Shares Are Tendered
AMSTERDAM (Dow Jones)

Dutch dredging company Royal Boskalis NV (BOKA.AE) said Tuesday that, after it declared its takeover offer on Smit Internationale NV (SMIT.AE) unconditional, 94% of Smit's shares have been tendered.

MAIN FACTS:

-As a result of Boskalis having declared the Offer unconditional, a number of shareholders of Smit that had not yet tendered their Shares, including the Van Herk Groep, have informed Boskalis that, on the basis of the 90% acceptance as per the closing of the Tender Period, they will also accept the Offer.

-As a result, 11,485,988 Shares have now been tendered for acceptance under the Offer, which, together with the Shares already held by Boskalis, amount to a total of 17.240.480 Shares, representing 93.87% of the Shares.

-Shareholders who have not yet tendered their Shares under the Offer still have the opportunity to do so during the a post closing acceptance period, commencing at 0900 CET, 30 March 2010 and expiring at 1800 CET, on 13 April 2010

- By Amsterdam Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; [e-mail]

[waldron] 27/3/2010 18:54

UBS Target rises to 38 euros

[waldron] 27/3/2010 08:18

ING target rises optimistically to 34.50 euros

[grupo guitarlumber] 18/3/2010 07:33

Boskalis 2009 Net Profit -9%, Sees Lower Volumes, Margins
By Robin van Daalen
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

AMSTERDAM (Dow Jones)

Netherlands-based Royal Boskalis Westminster NV (BOKA.AE), one of the world's largest dredging companies by sales, Thursday posted a 9% drop in full-year net profit and said aims to cut costs as it expects volumes and margins to come under pressure.

"The global recession has also affected our industry and although to date the impact on Boskalis has been limited, we are preparing ourselves for lower volumes of work and lower margins. The implementation of our fleet rationalization program will improve our cost structure and thereby boost our position in the market," Chief Executive Officer Peter Berdowski said in a statement.

Net profit for 2009 dropped 9% to EUR227.9 million from EUR249.1 million a year earlier. Four analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a EUR218 million net profit.

In recent years, the company has posted record profit as strong growth in world trade, energy consumption and tourism resulted in unprecedented demand for dredging activities. However, since the global credit crunch, demand has collapsed, particularly in the Middle East, where a series of major projects were delayed or halted.

Revenue was EUR2.18 billion compared with EUR2.10 billion a year earlier, supported by a 41% rise at its Maritime Infrastructure business, which account for a small portion of total revenue.

However, Boskalis said the value of its order book dropped by 14% to EUR2.88 billion.

-By Robin van Daalen; Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

[waldron] 04/3/2010 14:12

source:dredgingtoday.com


Dutch Contractor Smit: Solid result in turbulent yearPosted on Mar 4th, 2010 with tags company, contractor, Dutch, Europe, Marine, netherlands, News, Operator, result, Service, Smit, Solid, turbulent, year.



Rotterdam, 4 March 2010, Ben Vree, CEO, commented as follows: "Despite the world wide recession, which off course also impacted our business, we continued to realise good financial results.

This result, however, has been influenced by the settlement of the "Thunderhorse" project and a non-recurring tax benefit. During 2009 we noticed that the decline of the Harbour Towage market stabilised and at certain locations even improved slightly towards the end of the year. The Terminal activities continued to grow substantially and provided stable income. Salvage remains unpredictable! The result was heavily influenced by the settlement of prior-year salvage jobs; as a result the Division performed well. The Transport & Heavy Lift activities initially showed good utilisation rates for the fleet. However, in the second half of the year the recession had a greater impact on the spot business of this division. Our strategy of realising stability and gradual growth has proved to be successful also in times of recession."

Highlights

• Harbour Towage: slow-down mainly compensated by repositioning of vessels.

• Terminals achieves sharp profit growth caused by new contracts.

• Salvage result at a high level due to settlement prior year cases.

• Transport activities contribute well.

• Heavy Lift fleet utilisation lower than previous year.

• Process of merger with Boskalis on schedule (EGM on 16 March 2010).

Results in 2009

• Net profit EUR 102.4 million (2008: EUR 107.8 million).

• Net profit includes non recurring items from settlement "Thunderhorse" (EUR 10 million net) and taxes (EUR 4 million net).

• EBITDA (including associated companies) EUR 199.7 million (2008: EUR 201.0 million).

• Operating result EUR 104.6 million (2008: EUR 112.5 million).

• Result from associated companies EUR 20.8 million (2008: EUR 25.4 million) mainly due to lower result Asian Lift.

• Net earnings per share EUR 5.57 (2008: EUR 6.11).

• Dividend 2009 per share amounts to EUR 2.75 in cash, as announced in press release of 25 January 2010.

[grupo guitarlumber] 04/2/2010 07:55

18 March 2010 - Publication Annual Results 2009


12 May 2010 - Annual General Meeting of Shareholders


12 May 2010 - Trading update 1st period 2010


19 August 2010 - Publication Half Year Results 2010

[ariane] 26/1/2010 06:07

Smit agrees to sweetened Boskalis deal
Written by Chris Sleight - 25 Jan 2010


Smit and Boskalis have signed a merger protocol following an improved acquisition deal from Boskalis. Under the new terms Smit shareholders will also get a € 2,75 dividend for 2009.

Changing the terms of the deal to ex-, rather than cum-dividend effectively values Smit at € 1,11 billion, up from the € 1,06 billion price tag of Boskalis' November offer. It is also interesting to note that this also exceeds the € 62,50 per share hostile offer from Boskalis that Smit rejected at the end of 2008.

This latest offer is being recommended to Smit shareholders by its Management Board, although it only has majority approval from the Supervisory Board, rather than a unanimous seal of approval. As was the case in November, the deal is still supported by two of Smit's largest shareholders, Delta Lloyd Groep and Janivo Beleggingen.

Boskalis expects approval for the deal from the Netherlands Authority for Financial Markets to be granted by 4 February. The formal offer will then be launched in mid-February.


CLICK HERE FOR MORE CONSTRUCTION NEWS

[ariane] 10/12/2009 14:32

Boskalis Successfully Raises EUR230 Million Through Equity Offering





AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- Koninklijke Boskalis Westminster NV (BOKA.AE) said Thursday it raised EUR230 million of equity. A total number of 9,019,606 new ordinary shares were placed, at a price of EUR25.50 per share.

MAIN FACTS:

- 4,913,568 shares were placed through an accelerated bookbuild offering and 4,106,038 through a private placement with Boskalis' large shareholders HAL Investments and Delta Lloyd NV (DL.AE).

- The proceeds of the equity offering will be used to partly finance the intended public offer for Smit Internationale NV (SMIT.AE).

- After settlement of the Offering and the Private Placement, Boskalis' total number of outstanding shares will be 98,651,289.

- ING Groep NV (ING) and ABN AMRO Bank NV acted as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the offering. Fortis Bank Nederland/MeesPierson CFCM and Rabo Securities acted as co-lead managers for the offering. Kempen & Co acted as placing agent of the private placement and advisor to Boskalis.

- By Amsterdam Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; [e-mail]

[ariane] 09/12/2009 20:35

Boskalis Announces EUR230 Million Equity Offering For Smit Buy





AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- Royal Boskalis Westminster NV (BOKA.AE) announced Wednesday the launch of an equity offering to raise up to approximately EUR230 million.

- The proceeds of the share offer will be used to partly finance the intended public offer for Smit Internationale N.V. (SMIT.AE)

- Equity offering of approximately EUR230 million

- Accelerated bookbuild offering of up to 5.1 million shares

- Private placement of up to EUR105 million to HAL and Delta Lloyd Group

- The book will open with immediate effect and the closing of the book is expected tomorrow in the course of the day. Settlement of the Offering is expected to take place on 15 December 2009.

- HAL Investments will maintain its 32,48% stake in Boskalis.

- By Amsterdam Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; [e-mail]