24.05.2011

Loxam acquires Stammis

Loxam BV of the Netherlands has acquired general rental company Stammis from Riwal. No details of the deal or official statement have yet been released.

Stammis, which was established in 1965, offers a full range of power and general equipment for rent from five branches in Northern Holland.

The company was taken over at the end of 2005 by Instant Holland of Badhoevdorp near Amsterdam, which was subsequently acquired by Riwal at the end of June 2009.
Instant takes Stammis
Riwal acquires Instant
When Instant took over the business it extracted the Stammis aerial lift fleet and merged it into its own, but left the rest of the business with Stammis as a stand alone operation, which was never integrated into either Instant or Riwal.

The Loxam group of France moved into Holland in 2006 with the acquisition of Spreeuwenberg Hoogwerk Systemen. The five Stammis locations will add to Loxam’s current network of two general equipment and five access branches. Loxam buys Spreeuwenberg
The current Stammis management team will, we understand, remain on board and is expected to contribute to the development of the Loxam group in the Netherlands.

Loxam remains the largest rental group in Europe with revenues last year of €702.5 million, 540 branches and a fleet of more than 200.000 machines.

Vertikal Comment

This looks like one of the more strategically significant moves made by Loxam in recent times. Outside of France it always seems as though the company makes an acquisition and then does very little with it choosing to just run it as is.

To an outsider this seems to be a lack of a coherent strategy. When its main international competitors acquire a business they tend to add other product lines or businesses that the group has experience of, Loxam rarely does. Seeming to prefer running the acquired operation as before but under the Loxam banner.

In France the company is a highly successful general and tool rental company, albeit with speciality divisions- similar in many respects to United Rentals and Sunbelt in the US or A-Plant in the UK. Overseas it tends to be whatever it bought.. so in the UK it is a straightforward access company, in Holland an access company with some general plant and equipment.

This move however nicely rounds out Loxam’s general rental business, while adding some decent coverage and shows signs that it is, perhaps, part of a strategy to move closer to the formula of the French parent?

For Riwal the move makes total sense and allows it to continue to focus on building up its specialist aerial lift operations on an international level. It looks like a good deal for both companies.