Rotterdam, 7 May 2008
During the last years the implementation of the chosen strategy has already resulted in continuous improvement of the results of Smit Internationale NV. In the future SMIT also expects to continue benefiting from its strategy. Consequently SMIT announced today at its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders that it raises its growth targets for the coming 5 years.

Harbour Towage
The target set in 2005 for growth in net profit was amply exceeded last year. The new target has been set at 50% growth over a five-year period. For this purpose the baseline year of 2007 was normalised because of the acquisition of the Adsteam activities in Liverpool in March 2007 and the complete takeover of URS in Antwerp in early 2008. The normalised result for 2007 was EUR 43 million.
The target return remains a ROACE of 15%.

Terminals
The growth target in net profit, set in 2003 for the Terminals Division, was also amply exceeded last year, in spite of the transfer of the subsea activities to Transport & Heavy Lift. Because the target was exceeded and also in the light of the recently acquired new contracts – which will contribute to profits in the years to come – SMIT has set a new target for growth in net profit of 100% over a five-year period (baseline year 2007).
The target return remains a ROACE of 15%.

Salvage
There is no specific growth target in net profit for Salvage given the unpredictable nature of this activity. However, the historic average operating profit has increased sharply in recent years from EUR 4 million in 2005 to EUR 16 million in 2008. Given the increasing volume of shipping, SMIT also expects that the salvage market will continue to grow. SMIT’s aim is therefore to maintain its market share at 25% to 35%.
In this case the target return is still a 10% margin on net production.

Transport & Heavy Lift
Although the comparative basis for Transport continues to increase, partly because of the acquisition of OMS and the deployment of new, larger work vessels on long-term contracts, SMIT is still able to maintain its target growth in net profit for the next 5 years at 10% every year (baseline year 2007).
The target return for Transport remains a ROACE of 15%.

Regarding Heavy Lift, SMIT is not expecting any substantial investment in the short term because of the current high cost of new build. SMIT is therefore assuming that consolidation will continue in the years to come, which amounts to a target growth in net profit of 3% every year over the next 5 years (2007 is the baseline year).

However, SMIT has raised the basis for this assumption, partly because of the acquisition of GB Diving and the provision recognised in 2007 for “Lisa A”.
For this purpose the result for the baseline year 2007 has been normalised at EUR 22.5 million.
Given the use of largely written-off equipment in Heavy Lift, the ROACE target does not apply for this activity as the target return. Consequently, SMIT has set a target return for Heavy Lift at a profit margin of 15% (EBIT/turnover = 15%).