Boskalis Confirms It Will Offer to Acquire Smit International

Following the public announcement dated September 15 2008 Royal Boskalis Westminster nv hereby confirms its intention to make a public offer for all the issued and outstanding ordinary shares in the issued share capital of Smit Internationale nv.

Boskalis believes that the proposed transaction provides ample prospects for further development and growth of the combined businesses. Therefore Boskalis will continue to pursue a transaction that is fully supported and recommended by the Board of Directors and Board of Supervisory Directors of Smit.

In the coming weeks Boskalis will further analyse and evaluate all aspects of the transaction including the developments on the markets on which Smit is active and the developments on the stock markets – with a view to determining the final content and structure of the offer.

On the basis of Section 7 paragraph 3 of the Dutch Decree on Public Takeover Bids (Besluitopenbare biedingen Wft) Boskalis hereby confirms that it will prior to December 8 2008 submit a request for approval of the offering memorandum to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten). On that date Boskalis will also make public the conditions for the making and declaring wholly unconditional of the offer.

Smit International is a marine services group that engages in transport and heavy lift (33.5 percent of revenues) salvage (23.9 percent) harbor towage (22.8 percent) and terminals (19.8 percent).