Van Oord to acquire activities of Ballast Nedam Offshore
Van Oord has reached agreement on the acquisition of the activities of Ballast Nedam Offshore. The acquisition consists of the assets of Ballast Nedam Offshore, the dedicated EPCI staff (Engineering, Procurement, Contracting and Installation), heavy lift installation vessel Svanen and the Westermeerwind project (144 MW). The activities will be integrated into Van Oord’s Offshore Wind Projects business unit. The acquisition will strengthen Van Oord’s leading position in the offshore wind market for north west Europe, the company said in its press release.
This acquisition is part of Van Oord’s strategy to expand its Offshore Wind Projects business unit. The demand for energy of the growing world population is rising constantly. Van Oord’s OWP business unit can contribute to the objectives of the Dutch Energy Transition Agreement, which states that in the next ten years the generation of sustainable (renewable) energy must increase from 4% to 16%. Van Oord has been involved in the construction of offshore wind projects since 2002. The company’s track record includes a.o. the following projects: Princess Amalia (Netherlands), Belwind (Belgium), Teesside (United Kingdom), DanTysk (Denmark). Van Oord is now constructing two offshore wind farms in the Netherlands: Eneco Luchterduinen (120 MW) and Gemini (600 MW).
Ballast Nedam Offshore was involved in the construction of the first Dutch offshore wind park, Egmond aan Zee (108 MW).
‘The acquisition is fully in line with our investment program for the coming years’, says CEO Pieter Van Oord. ‘Earlier this year our dedicated installation vessel for offshore wind projects, Aeolus, became operational and we invested in a new vessel for cable-laying activities, Nexus, which will be operational within a few months. Heavy lift vessel Svanen successfully installed more than 500 foundations and complements our installation capabilities. The merger of the Ballast Nedam Offshore activities and our OWP activities will create a leading contractor for offshore wind projects.’
