March 15 - Heavy lift operations provided a rare glimmer of relief in Ballast Nedam's annual results.

The Infrastructure group of the Netherlands-based conglomerate "performed excellently in the past year in the growing European offshore wind farm market" says the company's annual report for 2009.

The heavy lift ship Svanen was engaged for foundation installation work on the British Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm project during 2009 and on the Belwind Offshore Wind Farm off the Belgian coast. Since completing the Belwind project in February 2010, the Svanen is due to be deployed on the installation of 90 foundations for the British Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm on behalf of the Danish contractor MT Hojgaard.

In Q2 2010, the Infrastructure group is set to install 22 foundations for the German Baltic I Offshore Wind Farm project, using a leased heavy lift ship. The utilisation prospects for the heavy lift vessel Svanen are good in the years to come, says the report.

Gross profits were in line with dire expectations: EUR17 / USD23.3 million in 2009, down from EUR42 / USD57.6 million in 2008 and likely to be from EUR10 / USD13.7 million to EUR15 / USD20.5 million this year. The revenue of the Infrastructure division was virtually unchanged at EUR707 / USD970 million. The result was in line with the forecast, and was good in view of the deterioration in market conditions in 2009, concludes the report.

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