Ramirent this week exercised its option to acquire the remaining 40 percent of the shares of a Slovakian rental company it partially acquired to enter the market in 2008. That year, Ramirent purchased 60 percent of the shares of OTS Bratislava spol.sr.o with an option to acquire the rest of the company later.

When Ramirent bought the company, it was engaged in rental, repair and sales of construction equipment, but since then Ramirent has emphasized rental. It now is the largest company in the country with 38 branches.

“During the past three years, we have renewed the entire equipment fleet and added new product groups, so that it is today a full product range rental company,” said Tomasz Walawender, senior vice president of Ramirent’s central Europe segment. “In April 2011, the company name will change to Ramirent spol.s.r.o. We are very happy that the former owners and current management team is continuing to lead the Ramirent organizations in both Slovakia and Czech Republic.”

The Slovak equipment rental market is young and not highly developed.

Based in Helsinki, Finland, Ramirent has facilities in 13 countries in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.