Dutch dredging and marine services provider Boskalis has reached an agreement with its major shareholder HAL about the non-financial conditions of the squeeze-out offer that the latter is set to launch in June this year. But the takeover price will remain a point of discussion.
The Dutch investor HAL is the largest shareholder of Boskalis with around 46%. In March, HAL announced that it would launch an all-cash offer of €32.50 ($34.94) per share, adjusted to €32 for the €0.50 dividend paid by Boskalis.
Since then, Boskalis has pushed for a higher offer from HAL, but with no success. As a result, the Papendrecht-based firm has decided to submit the offer to its shareholders in a neutral manner.
“Boskalis has concluded that the intended offer price per share communicated by HAL is not unreasonable, but in its opinion, not sufficiently convincing to recommend this price to its shareholders,” the company said in a release, adding that it has decided, “in the interest of all shareholders, to present the offer with a neutral view on price, while providing the shareholders the optionality to tender the shares under the intended offer (if and when launched) if they wish to do so.”
Last month, Boskalis raised its full-year core profit forecast, pointing to a well-filled $5.9bn orderbook and a favourable market outlook in the short and medium-term. The company expects its 2022 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to exceed the €462m ($496.7m) posted in 2021, against a previous estimate of matching it.
