Will Boskalis disappear from the stock exchange this month? The offshore company will present half-year figures on Thursday, but most attention will undoubtedly be paid to the offer from major shareholder HAL. The Rotterdam investment company wants to put an end to more than fifty years of listing of the dredging company and maritime service provider from Papendrecht.
HAL has increased its stake in Boskalis – partly through a foundation – to over 55 percent. For EUR 32.50 each (a premium of 28 percent), the investor wants to acquire the remaining shares in order to then take Boskalis off the stock exchange. With this, HAL, which received regulatory approval for the offer at the end of July, values Boskalis at 4.2 billion euros.
The question is what the other shareholders want. Boskalis will convene an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting to discuss the matter on 24 August. The board issued a ‘neutral’ opinion on the offer, which is quite unusual. “A signal that the board does not see it as very generous,” says analyst Christoph Greulich of the German investment bank Berenberg. “But again not so low that it is seen as a hostile offer.”
He points out that the Boskalis exchange rate has never exceeded 28 euros in recent years. Investors who joined not so long ago can therefore be satisfied with the offer, he says. “On the other hand, the last few years have been challenging, with an oil and corona crisis. Boskalis is still benefiting from the recovering gas and oil market. Shareholders who have been in Boskalis longer will therefore be less satisfied.”
With a turnover of 2.96 billion euros, Boskalis is one of the largest dredging companies in the world. The company generates more than 80 percent of its turnover outside the Netherlands and has a fleet of more than 600 ships. It builds and maintains ports, waterways, tunnels, pipelines and oil and gas installations for the energy sector. In 2021 Boskalis gained world fame with the refloating of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal. That same year, it started a special job: land development for the Manila airport – the largest contract in the company’s history with a value of 1.5 billion euros.
HAL knows Boskalis well. The investor has had an interest in the dredging group ever since it was founded in 1989. Jaap van Wiechen, director of HAL Investments, is also a supervisory director at Boskalis.
HAL is known for its secrecy: the Van der Vorm founding family shuns publicity and prefers to operate in the shade from its head office in Monaco. HAL did not go too deeply into the intended stock market exit either. The listing would have ‘limited added value’ for Boskalis, given the ‘long-term nature of its larger projects’. Also, the listing would not outweigh the costs and hinder mergers and acquisitions, HAL said in announcing the acquisition plans. The investor says it does not want to cut the workforce (more than 10,000 people) or replace management or board members.
According to analyst André Mulder of Kepler Cheuvreux, the top management of Boskalis does not immediately identify with the picture that HAL paints. “They have not seen the listing as a hindrance to their business activities or acquisitions.” He does see the loss of decision-making power about attracting investments as a disadvantage of a stock market exit for Boskalis. He considers the 32.50 euros a reasonable offer. “No knockout bid, but it’s a decent premium. Moreover, no one else is interested in taking over Boskalis.”
According to Berenberg analyst Greulich, the market is counting on the stock market exit to go ahead. “But it’s not a foregone conclusion.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of August 15, 2022