Exceptional First Half for Boskalis

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) realized a net profit of €306.5 million in the first half of 2015, a rise of 21% (H1 2014: €253.0 million).

Revenue in the first half of the year rose 1.6% to €1.57 billion (H1 2014: €1.55 billion). Adjusted for (de)consolidation and currency translation effects, revenue was stable.

EBITDA in the first half of the year amounted to €500.1 million (H1 2014: €466.4 million) and the operating profit was €359.3 million (H1 2014: €338.3 million).

Results in all three segments (dredging, offshore and towage & salvage) were good in addition to which there were a number of exceptional items.

Dredging & Inland Infra had an exceptionally busy first half from an operational point of view. Good results on the projects in progress, a very high fleet utilization rate together with relatively low repair costs and a substantial contribution from financial settlements on projects completed earlier all contributed to the good result.

At the end of the first half of the year the order book stood at €2,963 million (end-2014: €3,286 million). The decline in the order book is mainly attributable to the execution of the sizable Suez Canal project and the sale of the activities of De Jong at the beginning of the year.

Peter Berdowski, CEO Boskalis: “Once again we can look back on a fantastic first half of the year with historically high EBITDA of half a billion euros. We are especially proud of the successful execution and swift realization of the Suez Canal project, which was on an unprecedented scale and had to be completed within an extremely short timeframe.”

“Partly due to the Suez project the dredging fleet was kept busy plying the waterways in the first half of the year. The high fleet utilization made a strong contribution to the good result. The second half of the year will be a different story in terms of utilization in particular because we will have to catch up on vessel maintenance which will result in more expenses and less revenue.”

As for the market developments, the company expects a stable market with regard to large-scale maritime infrastructure projects, the developments in and around ports and large-scale infrastructure works in the Netherlands.

The tender pipeline with capital dredging projects for the deepening and expansion of ports and waterways, land reclamation projects and tunnel developments is positive, and maintenance work in these markets has a strong recurring nature.

In large ports the development of the number of shipping movements and thus the demand for towage services looks likely to be stable in the coming years. In light of this, expectations are that conditions in the Dredging & Inland Infra and Towage segments will remain stable.

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