A good year for Boskalis

Historically Boskalis is perhaps best known for its dredging and marine construction sectors, its activities have expanded significantly over recent years however including the takeover of Smit International in 2010. The Smit brand name was retained along with its towage and salvage activities not to mention its reputation as a global heavyweight in the sector and one of the most identifiable names in marine salvage.

Before looking at the towage and salvage elements of Boskalis’ activities during 2015, the headlines from the group’s overall activities include: a net profit of €440m from revenue of €3.2bn and an order book at year-end standing at €2.5bn. Peter Berdowski, Boskalis chairman outlined main reasons behind the results stating: “… we worked very hard on the integration and further strengthening of our internal organization, among others through the harmonisation of various business processes and support systems.”

Within the towage division, further progress was made executing the strategy aimed at development and expansion of regional partnerships. MJ reported previously on the Saam Smit joint venture in North and South America and during 2015 the partnership was reported as having ‘taken on its permanent shape’. An important event during 2015 was the establishing of the Kotug Smit joint venture covering towage operations in northwest Europe, the report states the arrangement is expected to take effect in the first half of 2016.

Activities within the Smit Salvage division enjoyed ‘a historically busy and successful year’ with a notable assignment in activities being the wreck removal of the car carrier Baltic Ace from the Dutch coast (see MJ January 2016). They have been involved also in no fewer than three salvage jobs involving oil rigs during 2015: the Perro Negro in Angola, the Troll in Mexico and the Rumailah in Qatar.

Breaking down the numbers and looking at the Towage & Salvage segment; revenue rose in 2015 to €294.9m from €270.7m in 2015, the increase wholly attributable to salvage activities. Revenue at Towage declined in 2015 as a result of the strategy to transfer these activities into joint ventures. The report states the level of activities in the segment SMIT Towage Northwest Europe remained virtually stable.

EBITDA in the Towage & Salvage segment totalled €96.2m with an operating result of €79.1m compared with €118.6m and €84.0m, respectively in 2014. The result includes the stake in the net profit of joint ventures and associated companies, primarily Keppel Smit Towage (KST), Smit Lamnalco and Saam Smit Towage. The contribution of these activities was €36.3m compared with €38.3m in 2014.

By Peter Barker