05.03.2021

Sumitomo snaps up Aver Asia

Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation has acquired Singapore based aerial lift sales and rental company Aver Asia in an all share purchase deal.

Aver Asia was established in 1998 and operates from 16 locations across seven countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand. It offers aerial work platforms, compressors, and generators and is a Genie distributor in most, if not all, of the territories it operates from. Revenues last year were in the region of $90 million (€56 million/$67 million) with 477 employees. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation.
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Sumitomo, which owns construction equipment distribution and rental companies in 18 countries, said that it plans to use the acquisition to expand its business in Southeast Asia, which it believes is entering a period of rapid growth in construction equipment rental, with demand expected to double over the next five years. It is also said that it is seeking to “enhance and expand its construction equipment rental business by mutually utilising the collective know how it garners and optimally allocating management resources in the three regions of Japan, the United States, and Southeast Asia.”

The statement added: “Construction work has become increasingly mechanised as safety awareness has risen and economic development has brought about higher personnel costs, and an accelerating shift from ownership to rental of construction equipment is forecast.”

Sumitomo has owned Sunstate Equipment in the USA since 2013, having first invested in the business in 2009 when it acquired a minority stake. It raised its stake to 80 percent in 2013 and then bought the rest of the shares in 2017 when Mike Watts retired.

Along the way it has also sold rental businesses, for example it exited the Canadian market in 2015 when it sold its general rental business SMS to G. Cooper Rentals. It also owns Traktor Nusantara in Indonesia which sells and rents forklifts and JLG platforms alongside Link Belt and Hitachi cranes. This makes it both the Genie and JLG dealer in the country.
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Aver Asia is a Genie distributor in at least five of its seven countries