Smit Internationale N.V. (or Smit International) is a Dutch

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

operating in the

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

sector. The company was founded in 1842 by

Fop Smit Fop Smit (11 October 1777 – 25 August 1866) was a Dutch naval architect, shipbuilder, and shipowner. He founded the towage and salvage company L. Smit & Co that is now part of Smit International. His shipyard had a number of "firsts" in ship ...

as a towage company with only the 140

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

tug ''Kinderdijk''. Fop's sons, Jan and Leendert, continued the company under the name L. Smit & Co and expanded the fleet. In 1870, they began using tugs with propellers. After a merger in 1923 with Internationale Sleepdienst, the name was changed to "L. Smit & Co.'s Internationale Sleepdienst". Formerly listed at the

NYSE Euronext NYSE Euronext, Inc. was a transatlantic multinational financial services corporation that operated multiple securities exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext and NYSE Arca (formerly known as ArcaEx). NYSE merged with Archip ...

stock exchange in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, the company was fully acquired by

Royal Boskalis Westminster Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a Dutch dredging and heavylift company that provides services relating to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure internationally. The company has one of the world's largest dredging fleets, ...

in 2010.

Takeover

Dutch marine engineer

Boskalis Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a Dutch dredging and heavylift company that provides services relating to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure internationally. The company has one of the world's largest dredging fleets, a ...

made an indicative €1.11 billion

takeover offer In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

for Smit on 15 September 2008. Despite the offer being promptly rejected by Smit's board, Boskalis subsequently built a stake of over 25% in the firm and expressed a continuing desire to buy a number of its business units. A revised offer from Boskalis of €1.35 billion, coupled with a pledge to retain the Smit name and its distinct operations, was accepted by the firm's board in January 2010, with Boskalis declaring its offer unconditional that March having reached share ownership of 90%. Smit's shares were

delisted In corporate finance, a listing refers to the company's shares being on the list (or board) of stock that are officially traded on a stock exchange. Some stock exchanges allow shares of a foreign company to be listed and may allow dual listing, su ...

from the Amsterdam Stock Exchange on 4 May 2010.

Corporate structure

The company consist of four divisions, in order of revenue: *Transport & Heavy Lift (33.5% of total revenues) *Salvage (23.9%) *Harbour Towage (22.8%) *Terminals (19.8%) For larger (salvaging) projects the company often uses

joint-venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

s or combinations. An example of this is

Combinatie Berging Tricolor Combinatie Berging Tricolor (CBT) was a consortium of -mainly- Dutch salvaging companies led by Smit Salvaging BV, a daughter company of Smit International. MV Tricolor The consortium was set up to remove the wreck of the MV Tricolor, a Norwegi ...

(Dutch for ''Combination Salvaging Tricolor'') which was created solely for the lifting of the . A similar multi-firm arrangement was made for the 2013-2014 salvage of the

Costa Concordia ''Costa Concordia'' () was a cruise ship operated by Costa Crociere. She was the first of her class, followed by sister ships ''Costa Serena'', ''Costa Pacifica'', ''Costa Favolosa'' and ''Costa Fascinosa'', and ''Carnival Splendor'' built for ...

passenger cruise ship.

Fleet list

As of March 1, 2009, Smit (with its daughter companies and the joint ventures that it controls) has a fleet of 408 ships.Officia
Fleetlist per 1 March, 2009
as published on companies website, retrieved 12 February 2012

High profile operations

Its

marine salvage Marine salvage is the process of recovering a ship and its cargo after a shipwreck or other maritime casualty. Salvage may encompass towing, re-floating a vessel, or effecting repairs to a ship. Today, protecting the coastal environment from ...

division was involved in several high-profile salvage operations, including:Smit's website o
Salvage projects
, visited 12 February 2012 * (1971–72) * MT Betelgeuse (1979–80) * (1987) * The Russian submarine ''Kursk'' (lifting vessel) (2000) * ''

Ehime Maru On 9 February 2001, about south of Oahu, Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, the United States Navy (USN) ''Los Angeles''-class submarine USS ''Greeneville'' (SSN-772) collided with the Japanese-fishery high-school training ship from Ehime Pr ...

'' (2001) * MV ''Prestige'' (2002) * (lifting vessel) (2002–2003) * (2004) * MV ''Mighty Servant 3'' (2006) * (2008) * MS ''Costa Concordia'' (oil containment) (2012) * (grounded in Philippines) (2013) * ''

MOL Comfort ''MOL Comfort'' was a 2008-built Bahamian-flagged post-Panamax container ship chartered by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. The vessel was launched in 2008 as ''APL Russia'' and sailed under that name until 2012, when the ship was renamed to ''MOL Comfort ...

'' sunk in June 2013. * (2020) * ''

Ever Given ''Ever Given'' () is one of the largest container ships in the world. The ship is owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha (a ship-owning and leasing subsidiary of the large Japanese shipbuilding company Imabari Shipbuilding), and is time chartered and ope ...

'' blockage of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

(2021) * MV Eemslift Hendrika ship salvation (2021) They have also partnered with the French firm JLMD System to support preinstalled

fast oil recovery Fast oil recovery (FOR) is a term comprising various innovative systems which can be built into a new ship or integrated into an old ship, thus facilitating efficient and safe removal of an oil spill from a wrecked vessel. The drastic consequences ...

systems, which assure quick reliable oil removal in the event of a shipping accident.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.smit.com 1842 establishments in the Netherlands Companies based in Rotterdam Logistics companies of the Netherlands Marine salvage 2010 mergers and acquisitions Transport companies established in 1842