Dutch towage and dredging outfit Boskalis is to take full ownership of Smit Lamnalco.
Boskalis and Rezayat Group, a Saudi industrial group, currently own Smit Lamnalco in a 50/50 joint venture arrangement, which has existed for nearly 60 years.
Smit Lamnalco lists 160 vessels on its website, consisting of tugs, offshore vessels and crew boats.
Rezayat and Boskalis originally formed Lamnalco in 1965. They bought the Smit business of oil and gas terminal operations, harbour and tug business, including offshore anchor-handling tugs from Boskalis in 2011. It was renamed Smit Lamnalco.
It was reported in early 2023 that the joint venture was to be sold to Spain’s harbour towage giant Boluda.
Since that ill-fated deal attempt, Boluda has moved forward with other acquisitions, including six offshore vessels from France’s Les Abeilles last month, UK-based SMS Towage in May and Gibraltar’s Resolve Salvage in February.
Boskalis bought the anchor-handling fleet of Norway’s Altera Infrastructure in March for $280m.
In 2022, Boskalis was bought by HAL Holdings for £2.29bn ($2.94bn) and delisted.
HAL Holdings also has ownership interests in fellow Dutch shipowner Anthony Veder, terminal operator Vopak and SBM Offshore.
