The operating results of Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) decreased in the first half of the year compared to the first half 2017, the company reported.
According to Boskalis, this decline was mainly due to a sharp drop in the result of the Offshore Energy division where the transport activities at the low end of the market in particular worsened further and are now heavily loss-making.
A net operating profit of EUR 34.5 million was realized in the first half of the year (H1 2017: EUR 75.1 million). Including extraordinary charges the company reported a net loss of EUR 361.4 million.
Revenue in the first half of the year amounted to EUR 1.17 billion, a 6.6% increase compared to the first half of last year (H1 2017: EUR 1.09 billion).
EBITDA totaled EUR 167.2 million in the first half of the year and the operating result was EUR 47.4 million, both adjusted for extraordinary charges (H1 2017 EBITDA: EUR 225.1 million, operating result: EUR 101.7 million).
Revenue increased at the Dredging & Inland Infra segment, as did the utilization of the hopper fleet. Large ongoing projects in Oman and India contributed to this. The margins and result were stable compared to 2017.
Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis : “ There were two sides to the first half of the year. While the contracting activities at Dredging and Offshore Energy made a good contribution, developments at offshore services had a significant adverse effect on the result. ”
“ Dredging performed in line with expectations. We were able to increase revenue with a stable result and we were also successful in acquiring a number of large projects which considerably increased our work in hand ,” Berdowski added.
“ Looking ahead we are moderately optimistic. At Dredging we have a well-filled order book and see interesting and sizable projects across the market. In Offshore Energy we expect to see improved results at the contracting activities as well as at services as a result of the fleet reduction ,” Berdowski said.
The order book, excluding the company’s share in the order book of joint ventures and associated companies, increased to EUR 3.89 billion at the end of the first half of the year (end-2017: EUR 3.50 billion).
Click here for the full version of the 2018 half year report including all the financial details.