Royal Boskalis Westminster has banked more than $190m after reducing its stake in subsea specialist Fugro to 9.38%.
The Dutch dredging company has sold nearly 12.7 million shares for EUR 14.50 ($15.39) each, which means Boskalis has made EUR 183.9m from the stock disposal.
Its stake now stands at less than 10%, making NN Groep the largest shareholder in Fugro with a holding of 10.03%, according to the latest annual report.
Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Boskalis, said: “Despite our conviction that parts of Fugro fit very well with Boskalis, we recently decided to sell down our Fugro holding in steps.”
As TradeWinds reported last week, Boskalis cut its stake in Fugro from 28.6% to 24.9%.
Berdowski added: “This decision is on the one hand based on the uncertain market conditions which continue to prevail much longer than anticipated and on the other hand also the position of the Fugro management.”
Boskalis built its stake in Fugro through gradual acquisitions last year and it was thought that it would make a takeover attempt.
This never happened and Boskalis has now reduced its stake through the latest two disposals.
Shares in Fugro were losing as much as 6.64% on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange earlier today, trading at its lowest level since October at EUR 14.48.
