By the early 1920s, our founders continued to be considered a reliable partner in major infrastructure works. Thanks to sustained participation in tenders in Belgium, often in close cooperation with French contractors, the company consistently demonstrated its technical expertise, strengthened partnerships, and contributed to large and complex port projects.

These collaborations proved decisive when large scale public works restarted in the French colonies after the end of the First World War. Rather than entering Africa independently, our founders initially positioned themselves within French-led consortia and took on a specialist role that matched their expertise in dredging and hydraulic engineering.

Those efforts led to a first contract in Africa in 1925, when the company was engaged as a subcontractor for port works in Algiers. This marked the company’s first executed hydraulic engineering project in Africa, and it proved to be a carefully chosen step beyond Europe, building on the partnerships, experience, and trust developed in the preceding years.