royal boskalis westminster nv said thursday that it is in talks with hal holding nv over a potential takeover of the company and has therefore suspended share buybacks the dutch dredging and heavylifting company which said last month that it had appointed advisors as it mulls a proposed 420 billioneuro 442 billion takeover offer from hal said the two companies are in talks to explore whether agreement can be reached the company made the disclosure as it raised its fullyear earnings guidance and said that both revenue and earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization for the first quarter of the year had risen on the back of a wellfilled order book boskalis said it expects to post an ebitda for the year above the 462 million euros 4858 million achieved in 2021 the company had previously said it would be equal to last years figure regarding its firstquarter performance boskalis said revenue rose significantly but that its ebitda was slightly higher than in the yearearlier period its order book position at the end of the quarter was stable at eur547 billion it noted boskalis said on march 10 that hal an international holding company based in curacao in the caribbean was offering eur3250 for each boskalis share the price was a 28 premium to boskalis closing share price of eur2530 on march 9 it appointed advisors to consider the deal on april 8 no further information on the pricing was provided thursday shares at 1132 gmt were down 4 european cents or 01 at eur3290 write to sabela ojea at sabelaojeawsjcom sabelaojeaguix and ian walker at ianwalkerwsjcom