Dutch shipping company Royal Boskalis recently announced an acquisition and a merger[ds_preview] for Australian and European towage markets. Smit Lamnalco, a 50% associate, has strengthened its position in Australia through the acquisition of PB Towage Australia. It is the second largest player in Australia. Further, Boskalis and Kotug have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to merge their European harbour towage operations. The companies will establish a 50/50 joint venture for this purpose, combining the European harbour towage activities of SMIT, a Boskalis subsidiary, with the European harbour towage activities of Kotug. The merger and the acquisition are the concluding steps in Boskalis’ strategy aimed at establishing regional partnerships for its harbour towage activities, as was previously done through Smit Lamnalco, Keppel SMIT and SAAM SMIT, Boskalis stated. The joint venture will serve 11 ports in 4 countries with a fleet of more than 60 tugboats.
