Boskalis posts 2016 operating net result
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) achieved an operating net profit of EUR 276 million in 2016, in line with expectations. Including non-cash impairment charges of EUR 840 million after tax the company reported a net loss of EUR 564 million (2015: net profit of EUR 440 million), the company said in its press release.
Revenue declined by 20 per cent to EUR 2.60 billion (2015: EUR 3.24 billion). Adjusted for consolidation, deconsolidation and currency effects, revenue was down 26 per cent.
EBITDA amounted to EUR 660 million and the operating result was EUR 385 million, both adjusted for impairment charges (2015 EBITDA: EUR 885 million and operating result: EUR 577 million).
Given that 2015 was still an exceptionally good year with strong fleet utilization rates and outstanding project margins the transition to and contrast with 2016 was equally exceptionally large.
Dredging & Inland Infra had a quiet year. The sharp decline in revenue was partly due to a very busy 2015 with the execution of the Suez Canal project, but also reflects the conditions in the market. Moreover, revenue and fleet utilization were negatively impacted by the suspension of work on the Pluit project in Indonesia. The results on projects in progress were reasonable.
Revenue rose at Offshore Energy due to the addition of the offshore activities acquired from VolkerWessels. These activities also made a good contribution to the result. The remaining activities made a reasonable to good contribution despite the deteriorated market conditions.
Towage & Salvage reported a lower result compared to the previous year, partly as a result of deconsolidation effects at Towage. Salvage had a good but very quiet year.
In light of the strongly deteriorated conditions in the offshore market and the resulting outlook we recently announced non-cash impairment charges of EUR 840 million after tax. These charges pertain almost entirely to the service-related part of Boskalis' offshore oil and gas activities and relate to the impairment of both vessels and goodwill.
Boskalis' financial position continues to be strong, even after the impairment. At the end of 2016 Boskalis was net debt-free with a positive net cash position of EUR 203 million.
The order book increased to EUR 2.92 billion (end-2015: EUR 2.49 billion).
