Terex Corp. announced this week that it has entered into an agreement to divest the Terex Atlas heavy construction equipment group, located in Ganderkesee, Germany, and knuckle-boom crane and related components businesses, which have operations in Vechta and Delmenhorst, Germany. Also included in the transaction are the sales and service business located in Bradford, U.K., and the Terex minority ownership position in the Atlas Chinese joint venture.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, although the business is being divested with an agreed-upon amount of capital to be transferred with the business. The buyer is a private investor. The transaction, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals is expected to close in the second quarter of 2010.

“The Atlas divestiture is another important step forward in the strategic repositioning of Terex,” said Ron DeFeo, Terex chairman and CEO. “We acquired the Atlas business in 2001 with the intention of having a quality full-size excavator as part of a globally competitive portfolio of construction equipment. Our goal was to grow the regionally strong Atlas excavator product as part of this strategy, but we were, for various reasons, never able to achieve the product cost advantage required for it to be successful. Despite restructuring attempts, the tough economic conditions in 2009 resulted in an operating loss for this business in excess of $61 million on sales of approximately $194 million, with approximately two-thirds of the loss coming from the construction products.”

Product lines to be divested in the transaction include crawler, wheel and rail excavators, knuckle-boom truck loader cranes and Terex Atlas-branded material handlers. The transaction also includes the Terex Atlas UK distribution business for truck loader cranes in the United Kingdom. The Atlas business is reported in the Terex Construction segment, with the exception of the cranes, reported in the Terex Cranes segment.

Terex compact equipment made in Germany, such as mini- and midi-excavators and compact wheel loaders, and the Terex Fuchs material handler line, will remain with Terex as part of the Construction business segment. Also not part of the transaction are Terex rigid and articulated trucks, backhoe loaders and other products manufactured in the U.K.

About 800 Terex employees will work for the new owner.

The sale adds to Terex’s recent divestment of its mining business, as well as its power buggy line, its generator product line and its Load King trailer unit.

Terex is based in Westport, Conn.