08.01.2014

Essex to auction older cranes

Essex crane rental is to sell its surplus/poorly utilised crawler cranes via a sealed bid auction

The units to be sold are mostly older conventional units and represent around six percent of the company’s total fleet. The bidding period is scheduled to end on March 18th at 5pm eastern time.

Chief executive Ron Schad - who announced his resignation in November - said: "Essex Rental is continually evaluating the rental assets we own to ensure that they meet the needs of our customers and provide the highest possible return for our shareholders. In an effort to accelerate the sale of currently underutilised cranes, we have engaged Hunyady Auction Company to manage the sale of certain of our crawler cranes in a sealed bid auction."

"The assets being offered represent approximately six percent of our crawler crane fleet. Over 80 percent of the crawler cranes that will be listed for sale are traditional cranes whose utilisation and return on capital have been unsatisfactory. Unlike a live auction where equipment is sold to the highest bidder, in a sealed bid auction potential buyers propose a price they are willing to pay for a particular crane and we have the ability to determine whether the offered price is acceptable. As with prior sales, we will use the proceeds from the sale of excess equipment to repay debt and to improve our fleet.”