10.06.2010

Banks move on Hune

Spanish crane and access rental company Hune has been taken over by its major lender Banesto. (Banco Español de Crédito, S.A) the Spanish credit bank, part of the Santander group.

The company continues to operate normally while the bank looks to restructure the company’s €500 million of debt. Banesto acquired the business from its managers late last month – they themselves acquired the 72 percent holding in the business from Advent International at the start of this year for one Euro.

Banesto has brought in Noraction to work on the restructuring which is understood to include the departure of Hune’s chief executive Juan Dionis and its finance director Pedro Antón. As far as we are aware the rest of the operational management team remain in their posts, including Pedro Torres who heads up the aerial lift business which was a largely a combination of Umesa and Nacanco.
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Hune was a combination of Homs Umesa Nacanco and Euroloc,

Hune started out as Euroloc and was acquired by Advent in July 2006, following which it went through an orgy of acquisitions which included Nacanco, Umesa and Gruas Homs.

The company has a large fleet of Haulotte self propelled booms and scissors as well as Socage compact truck mounts and Bronto Skylift truck mounted lifts.

With the severe fall in the Spanish construction market the company’s huge debt pile began to weigh heavily on the business causing Advent to bail out at the end of 2009. The restructuring will at least put the business on a firmer footing with the bank expected to boost its balance sheet by around €200 million.