Royal Boskalis Westminster reports €123m net profit in H1

The Dutch-based dredging company Royal Boskalis Westminster realized a net profit of 123 million euros (164 million U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2013, up by 20 percent year on year, the company announced Thursday. Its revenue rose by 12 percent in the first half of 2013 to 1.6 billion euros, compared to the same period last year, the company said. In a profit forecast also published Thursday, the company expected its net profit for the 2013 financial year to be at 330 million euros. The profit forecast is partly due to the one-off gain of around 50 million euros that the company realizes with the sale of the 40-percent stake in the Greek maritime construction company Archirodon, which will be accounted for in the second half of the year. "The market conditions in the first six months of the year remained challenging but in spite of this capacity, utilization of the large ships was good and we managed to keep the order book well filled, as a result of which we expect to achieve a healthy capacity utilization of the fleet for the remainder of the year," CEO Peter Berdowski said. Boskalis, operating in 75 countries, provides services related to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure on an international basis. (1 euro = 1.33 U.S. dollars)