Boskalis: 2007 was another peak year, outlook 2008 positive

Date: March 19, 2008

Highlights 2007:              

• Net profit 204.4 million (+75%)
• Turnover 1,869 million (+38%)
• Record order book 3.6 billion (+40%)
• High fleet utilization, higher margins
• Earnings per share 2.38, dividend per share 1.19

Outlook 2008

• High turnover, high equipment utilization, healthy operating margins

In 2007, Royal Boskalis Westminster realized a net profit of   204.4 million, up 75% on 2006. Turnover rose 38% compared to 2006 to 1,869 million. Growth was geographically widespread and across all market segments. Thanks to its selective contracting policy, Boskalis mainly worked on high-quality projects that generated healthy margins. Despite the high turnover level, a strong intake of new orders worth 2.9 billion lifted the order book to an all-time high of 3.6 billion. The outlook for 2008 is also positive.

Peter Berdowski, Boskalis CEO:
"2007 was an absolute stellar year. We benefited from the strong market demand. In addition, our strategy focused on selective contracting has enabled us to work on a number of particularly attractive projects that generated extra margins. For 2008 I expect again a high turnover level, a fully occupied fleet and healthy operating margins."

Positive market developments in 2007
The upturn in the global dredging market that commenced in 2005 continued more pronouncedly in 2007. On almost all continents and in all sectors of relevance to us, demand for hydraulic engineering grew sharply over the past year.

The global dredging market is driven by long-term growth factors such as growth in world trade, the global population and energy consumption.
Container transportation by sea is showing strong growth, fuelled mainly by exports from China, which is developing its position more and more as the global production place. The demand for bulk materials such as iron ore and copper is increasing, also particularly from China, which means bulk transportation by sea is growing. Therefore, ports are deepened and expanded to absorb this growth.
Besides this, global urbanization is rapidly increasing due to both population growth and migration to cities in predominantly coastal areas, which as a result get overpopulated. This drives the demand for new land in sea, generating large-scale projects for the dredging industry.

Demand for energy also continues to grow steadily, prompting the oil and gas sector to develop new fields, often offshore. The dredging industry is part of these developments with the construction of new LNG ports, reclamation of new land for LNG plants and offshore pipeline protection.

Both the spread of our organization's operations around the world and the selective contracting policy we have pursued since 2005 enabled us to take maximum advantage of these positive developments. Boskalis was able to acquire new contracts for the record amount of 2,887 million.

Dividend
A proposal will be submitted to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 15, 2008 for a dividend, in line with the company's dividend policy, of 1.19 per share (pay-out 50%), to be paid in cash. The dividend will be payable from May 27, 2008 on.

Prospects for the coming year
2008 is expected to be another year with high turnover and equipment utilization and healthy operating margins. It is not yet possible to make firm statements about the net result expected for 2008.

For more details and explanatory notes please see the following pages.

Financial agenda 2008

Royal Boskalis Westminster nv is an international group with a leading position in the world market for dredging services. Its core activities are the construction and maintenance of ports and waterways, land reclamation, coastal defense and riverbank protection. The company holds important home market positions in and outside of Europe and targets all market segments in the dredging industry. It also has positions in strategic partnerships in the Middle East (Archirodon) and in offshore services (Lamnalco). Boskalis has a versatile fleet of over 300 units and operates in over 50 countries across five continents. Including its share in partnerships, Boskalis has approximately 8,500 employees.

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This press release can also be found on our website www.boskalis.com.