This week’s Dutch swoop on two high-specification subsea vessels should come as no surprise for those keeping an eye on Boskalis.

The Euronext Amsterdam-listed shipowner earlier identified the offshore sector as ripe for expansion in its strategy plan for this year to 2019, while it also projected €750m ($890m) for capital expenditure in the period.

“While we expect the operating environment to remain challenging during the business plan period, we want to use this period to invest counter-cyclically — sowing the seeds so we can reap the benefits in the future,” Boskalis told investors.