Australia’s Boom Logistics Posts Higher Revenue, Profits
Australian crane rental company Boom Logistics posted an AU $36.6 million (U.S. $29.2 million) full-year after-tax profit for the previous financial year, an 11 percent year-over-year increase, while revenue rose 38 percent to AU $350 million (about U.S. $279 million). ...
Multi-National Cramo Grows Volume, Profits in First Half
Cramo’s consolidated sales and EBITA in the first half of 2007 increased in all market areas, totaling €223.7 million (about U.S. $300 million), up from €180.3 million for the same period last year, a 24-percent jump. Sales of continuing operations, not including the Dutch business operations that were divested in April, grew 26.7 percent, with organic growth accounting for 24.5 percent. Sales were boosted by favorable market conditions, positive price development, a higher rental utilization rate, and successful equipment investments in the company’s main market areas....
Ramirent First Half Volume Jumps 30 Percent
Vantaa, Finland-based multi-national rental company Ramirent increased net volume for the first six months of 2007 to €288.6 (about U.S. $389.2 million), a 30.1-percent increase compared to the first six months of last year when volume totaled €221.8 million....
Bidding Heats Up For Coates Hire
While several major suitors are in the hunt to acquire Coates Hire, Australia’s largest rental company, the process has encountered delays because of turmoil in global credit markets, according to Australian press reports....
British Rental Chain Vp Acquires Scotland’s ET Hire
Hire Station, the tool hire subsidiary of Vp plc, one of England’s largest rental companies, acquired ET Hire Ltd.’s operations in Scotland for £$1.1 million (about U.S. $2.24 million). ...
Spain’s Leading Aerial Specialist Euroloc Continues Acquisition Spree
Euroloc, Spain’s largest aerial work platform sales and rental company continued its consolidation of the aerial sector with the acquisition of UMESA, also an aerial specialist with headquarters in Castellbisbal, near Barcelona. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed....
Finning Sells Chile Mine $140 Million in Equipment
Chile-based Antofagasta Minerales S.A. last week awarded a $140-million equipment supply contract to Finning International, the Vancouver-based Caterpillar dealer. The equipment will be used in the Esperanza copper-gold mine in northern Chile....
Europlatform Conference to Debut World’s Largest Truck-mounted Platform
The world’s largest truck mount, the 103-meter (about 338-foot) ATA 1003 from Wumag, will mark the gathering of European access experts at the first Europlatform conference on Sept. 11, at the Ramada Plaza Basel hotel in Switzerland. The truck-mounted platform, courtesy of Eisele of Germany, will be on display during Europlatform next to the 105-meter hotel tower, the highest building in Switzerland....
Speedy Hire Acquires Irish Rental Company
The United Kingdom’s largest rental company Speedy Hire has acquired Waterford Hire Services Ltd., Speedy announced last week, for £6.5 million (about U.S. $13.2 million). Waterford, based in Waterford City, Ireland, also has a branch in South Kilkenny....
Harsco Announces Three Major International Rental Formwork Contracts
Worldwide industrial services company Harsco Corp. last week announced three new international contracts totaling more than $3 million for rental formwork and scaffolding engineering and equipment support to major construction projects in Dubai and Norway....
European Rental Association Plans First-ever International Rental Exhibition
The first International Rental Exhibition will be held in Amsterdam in June 2008. The new show, organized in cooperation with the European Rental Association, will be held at the RAI exhibition center in Amsterdam June 3-5, 2008. ...
Aggreko to Power Beijing Olympics
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games and Aggreko plc last week announced that Aggreko was named as the temporary power and temperature control exclusive supplier of the 2008 Olympics Games....
Harsco Posts Strong Second Quarter
Worldwide industrial services company Harsco Corp. last week reported record second-quarter sales totaling $946 million, a 24-percent jump over the same period in 2006. Second-quarter 2007 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were $0.91, a 44-percent increase from $0.63 in the same period last year....
Coates Suitors Review Data
Australia’s largest equipment rental company Coates Hire last week opened its data room for prospective buyers to conduct due diligence....
U.K.’s Speedy Raises Revenue 30 Percent
British tool rental giant Speedy Hire PLC last week said its fiscal first quarter revenue rose 30 percent and that it expects to complete its acquisition of Hewden Tools by the end of the month....
Private Equity Fund Next Capital Buys Two Australian Rental Companies
Private equity fund Next Capital, which last year spent AU $139 million (about U.S. $122 million) to acquire New Zealand-based Hirepool, last week acquired two Australian rental companies, On Site Australia and On Site Industrial Rentals....
Storms Cause Downward Revision for Boom Logistics
Storms on Australia’s east coast have caused mobile crane provider Boom Logistics Ltd. to revise downward its full-year profit expectations by 11 percent. ...
South African Distributor Buys Three Rental Companies
South African Woodworking equipment distributor Austro last week agreed to acquire three rental companies, Generator Hire, the Neptune Group and Gearing Moss, for about 130.5 million Rand (about $19 million)....
Harsco Lands Massive Polish Scaffolding Contract
Worldwide industrial services company Harsco Corp. last week said its Huennebeck division obtained a contract to provide nearly 325,000 square feet of scaffolding over the next 18 months for the construction of the new Sea Towers office and apartment complex in the coastal city of Gdynia, which will become Poland’s tallest building outside of Warsaw....
Tat Hong Incorporates Macau Company
Singapore-based crane and equipment rental company Tat Hong has incorporated a new business on the Chinese island of Macau. The company, Tat Hong Heavy Equipment (Macau) is a wholly owned percent of Tat Hong Heavy Equipment (Hong King)....
Multi-National Cramo Acquires Finnish Rental Company
Cramo Finland, a subsidiary of Helsinki, Finland-based Cramo PLC, recently signed an agreement to purchase the assets of Oskarin Vuokrakone, a three-location Finnish rental company that grossed about €0.8 million (about U.S. $1.09 million, according to current conversion rates.) in 2006....
New Zealand Cat Dealer to Launch Standalone Cat Rental Store Network
New Zealand heavy engineering specialist Gough, Gough and Hamer recently opened a Cat Rental Store in Christchurch, New Zealand, the first of what the company says will be a national chain of stand-alone rental stores. Gough, Gough and Hamer already operate 11 Cat Rental Store locations shared with Caterpillar dealerships, but the stand-alone business expands the company’s focus in New Zealand....
Coates to Permit Due Diligence
Australian rental giant Coates Hire has opened its books to allow potential suitors to perform due diligence two months after becoming the target of several takeover efforts. Suitors will gain access to Coates’ virtual data room beginning July 16. ...
European Rental Association Marks Anniversary, Defines Euro Rental Market Size
More than 170 participants met at the European Rental Association’s June convention in Berlin to celebrate the association’s first anniversary. The organization has grown steadily over the past year, and now represents more than 4,200 rental companies in Europe, either directly or through 11 national rental associations. ERA president Gerard Deprez, chief executive of France-based Loxam, Europe’s largest rental company, said the association is planning to create a rental show for rental companies, equipment manufacturers in cooperation with KHL Group....
Cummins Breaks Ground on Fuel System Plant in China
Columbus, Ind.-based Cummins last week broke ground on its first fuel systems plant outside North America. Located in Wuhan, China, Cummins Fuel Systems - Wuhan will be the company’s 13th production facility in China and is expected to begin production early next year. ...
