KOTUG and Boskalis establish joint venture
Dutch companies KOTUG International B.V and Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V have reached an agreement on the merger of their European harbour towage operations.
This means the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the parties back in late 2014 has now been formalised.
Ard-Jan Kooren, KOTUG’s CEO, said: “The combined operation will allow us to meet the increasing demands of our international clients in order to supply them with an even higher level of efficiency and port call optimisation.”
He continued: “In this consolidating market we can offer competitive services against the highest operational and safety standards within the industry.”
The joint operations will now be transferred to a 50/50 joint venture which combines the European harbour towage activities of KOTUG and Boskalis subsidiary, SMIT.
Operations will be executed under ‘KOTUG SMIT Towage’ in order to keep both brand names.
The venture will serve 11 ports in four countries with a fleet of 65 tugboats and will result in operational synergies with a total combined revenue of approximately €150m.
It will include the harbour towage operations of KOTUG in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, as well as the harbour towage operations of SMIT in Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
By Alice Mason
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