AmQuip Corp., a Philadelphia-area crane rental company, last week launched a bid to acquire the assets of Maxim Crane Works, currently under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. AmQuip officials said the company has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh for permission to file a competing reorganization plan for Maxim Crane, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June.

The AmQuip plan is supported by Albert Bove, president of Maxim Crane, according to a news release issued by AmQuip.

“If the sale to AmQuip occurs, Maxim Crane will once again be run by crane people, rather than accountants, lawyers and MBA’s,” the release quotes Bove, a 30-year Maxim Crane veteran, as saying. “I know from the very depths of my heart that this is the only way the company can be saved.” According to the release, Bove went on to say that if the Maxim Crane reorganization is confirmed, “the company will fail again and will be forced to close the doors and liquidate. This could be just like U.S. Airways, back in bankruptcy within 18 months because we did not have the right plan.”

AmQuip, also known as “the Crane People”, is a major crane rental company primarily operating in the northeastern United States, with a large inventory with machines as large as 500-ton all-terrain and crawler cranes.

Under the Bove/AmQuip plan, Maxim’s assets would be sold at auction for the highest and best price obtainable. AmQuip would act as a “stalking horse bidder”, meaning it would make the first bid and other interested parties would have to beat its offer.

If the AmQuip plan is confirmed by the court, the company said, a hearing on the proposed sale and auction would take place within 30 days and closing would occur within 11 days of court approval of the sale.

Pittsburgh-based Maxim Crane Works is No. 8 on the RER 100.