Belgium-based marine contractor DEME is to separate from its industrial parent group CFE and go public on the Brussels stock exchange by summer 2022.
The planned transaction involves the partial demerger of CFE by transferring its 100% stake in DEME to a ‘Newco’. At the time of the partial demerger, all the shareholders of CFE will receive one Newco share for each CFE share in their possession.
CFE said that a demerger should allow the marine engineering as well as the contracting and real estate activities to develop as two solid and separately listed companies, each with their own governance.
The transaction is expected to take several months to prepare. It is subject to obtaining a tax ruling from the Belgian Office for Advance Tax Rulings, the approval of various partners, as well as the extraordinary general meeting of CFE at which at least 75% of the capital represented must vote in favour of the partial demerger. Ackermans & van Haaren, the majority shareholder, and VINCI, who respectively own 62.1% and 12.1% of CFE, support the split.
DEME is one of the largest dredging groups in the world, together with its competitors Jan De Nul and the Dutch groups Van Oord and the listed Boskalis. In recent years, the Zwijndrecht-based firm has also grown into one of the top offshore wind contractors. Last month, it landed the largest offshore wind installation contract ever awarded in the US.
