Ackermans & van Haaren, a diversified group active in 5 key segments: Marine Engineering & Infrastructure (DEME,one of the largest dredging companies in the world), Private Banking, Real Estate, Leisure & Senior Care, Energy & Resources and Development Capital, today announced its 2013 half-year results.
DEME (AvH 60.40%) continues the positive trend of the past few months and recorded a strong third quarter. The turnover (economic turnover, i.e. including the jointly controlled group companies on a proportional basis) for the first nine months of 2014 increased to 1,979 million euros, compared to 1,903 million euros at the end of September 2013.
Execution of the major projects in Australia, Qatar and Russia continued in line with expectations. In the third quarter, GeoSea installed the foundations and the first suction bucket jacket for the Borkum Riffgrund 1 offshore wind farm and went ahead with the installation of offshore wind turbines on the Baltic 2 project in North Germany.
Tideway was deployed on this project for erosion protection works.
At the end of September 2014, the order book amounted to 2.5 billion euros (compared to 2.8 billion euros at the end of June 2014). Projects in a.o. Colombia and the Maldives were added to the order book during the third quarter.
In October, the Suez Canal Authority awarded a contract worth 421 million euros to a DEME-led consortium (DEME 75%) to deepen part of the Suez Canal to 24 meters of depth over a length of 25 km. The works are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2014. DEME will deploy 4 cutter suction dredgers and 2 hopper dredgers on this project.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, GeoSea announced the agreement for the acquisition of offshore assets from HOCHTIEF. This implies that DEME will obtain full ownership (compared to 50% at present) of the heavy-lift jack-up vessel ‘Innovation’.
GeoSea will also take over staff and certain obligations of HOCHTIEF, without this having a significant impact on the consolidated balance sheet of DEME.
To support the continuing growth of its activities worldwide, DEME has announced the construction of a new office building in Zwijndrecht (Antwerp) that will accommodate 250 people. In this way, DEME further strengthens its presence in Belgium.
The positive operational performance, limited expenditures on investments and a favourable evolution in terms of working capital combined substantially reduced DEME’s net financial debt to 394.5 million euros (including the proportional share in the debts of jointly controlled companies).
At year-end 2013, the net financial debt still amounted to 711.3 million euros.
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Press Release