Date: 7 January 2008
During the New Year meeting today for dredging concern Royal Boskalis Westminster nv, CEO Peter Berdowski looked back on a fantastic 2007 that broke various records. He confirmed the forecast made previously of an increase in the net profit to approximately 200 million. Boskalis booked a record turnover last year of more than 1.8 billion and acquired more than 2.6 billion in orders. Accordingly, the orderbook rose to more than 3.3 billion.
Boskalis also expects structurally high demand in the dredging market in the years to come, with a broad spread across the world and the various market segments. Until 2012, the company expects a relatively limited increase in hopper capacity of approximately 20%. On the basis of identified projects, Boskalis anticipates that this will be completely absorbed by the market.
Once again in 2008, Boskalis is anticipating on high turnover, high fleet utilization and good operating margins. Boskalis is sticking with its selective contracting policy and is continuing to focus on projects with above-average margins.
Peter Berdowski, Boskalis CEO:
"Most of the turnover budget for 2008 is in the orderbook and most of our ships are already booked for a large part of the year. However, even though the orderbook is well filled, there is still room in the schedule; we aim to use that to pick up prime projects, both for 2008 and later years."
The ambitious Boskalis fleet expansion program is running on schedule. At the end of December, the overhauled jumbo cutter Phoenix went into operation, and the company has four hoppers and a fallpipe vessel under construction. In 2008, the jumbo hopper Queen of the Netherlands will be lengthened and various tugs will be completed for Boskalis' subsidiary company, Lamnalco. Boskalis also ordered the engines for two new innovative jumbo cutters in December.
Boskalis will be publishing its definitive annual figures for 2007 on 19 March 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 8,000 employees.
For further information please contact:
| Roel Berends - Corporate Relations | |
| Telephone: | +31 (0)78 69 69 822 / +31 (0)6 2001 0232 |
| Fax: | +31 (0)78 69 69 020 |
| E-mail: | r.t.berends@boskalis.nl |
This press release can also be found on our website www.boskalis.com
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