Belgium's Jan De Nul and Dredging International complete the new Big Four, culminating a period of intense manoeuvring and consolidation at the top of the industry.

The Royal BAM Group realise a value of ?427m for Ballast Ham Dredging and retain a 21.5% stake in it. BAM receives ?260m from the deal, which will help to meet a pending ?300m payment on the ?750m bridging loan with which BAM purchased the Hollandsche Beton Group (HBG), which then held a two thirds interest in Ballast Ham Dredging. The transaction gives MerweOord a strategic majority 47.6% interest in the new company, which will trade under the name Van Oord NV. NPM Capital NV holds the remaining 30.9% interest in the company.

However, via an agreement with NPM, Merwe Oord will be able to cast 51% of the votes with immediate effect.

The combined company's projected turnover for this year will be approximately ?850m.

The total workforce numbers approximately 3,000 and efforts will be made to avoid forced redundancies. Following due diligence investigations by both companies and approval by the relevant competition authorities, the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The head office of the new company will be the present Ballast Ham Dredging headquarters in Rotterdam.

MJ Information No: 18726