KOTUG International B.V. (KOTUG) announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) to merge their European harbour towage operations.The decision is fully in line with KOTUG's strategy and ambition to develop and increase its harbour towagefootprint in Europe. This partnership involves a 50/50 joint venture between KOTUG and SMIT, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boskalis. The geographic scope of the venture covers the European Harbourtowage market which relates to KOTUG's existing harbour towage activities in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK and SMIT's harbour towage activities in the Netherlands and Belgium. The combination will create a leading provider of harbour towage services in North West Europe active in 11 ports and 4 countries with a fleet of approximately 60 harbour tugs, generating a total turnover of about 150million Euro. Besides operational synergies the joint venture will strengthen the market position of both companies. KOTUG's CEO Ard-Jan Kooren "The combined operation will allow us to meet the increasing demands of our international joint clients in order to deliver more efficiency. In a market that is consolidating we can offer competitive services against the highest operational and safety standards within the industry." The implementation of the MoU is subject to customary conditions, including a due diligence process andapproval from regulatory agencies in the respective countries involved, all in close cooperation with ourworks councils.