10.04.2008

Loxam stays on top

Loxam, the French based rental company has posted its basic numbers for 2007, they show revenues of €738 million, over 36 percent up on 2006 with profits of €54 million 24 percent higher than in 2006.

The company now has over 4, 400 employees at 541 locations across 10 countries, with roughly 70 percent of its revenues coming from France

Vertikal Comment

Loxams’ 36 percent growth is on the surface impressive, however once again a large portion of this growth has come from acquisitions, which tends to hide low levels of organic growth. This is particularly true of its businesses outside of France.

The main addition to the group in 2007 was of course Laho at the end of the first quarter, Laho was expecting revenues of over €130 million for 2007. DNE-JJ in Denmar acquired in July was another large contributor with annual revenues of around €60 million.

Along with other acquisitions in Spain the total revenues of the acquired companies was well over €200 million on an annual basis.

Loxam will benefit in 2008 from both full year participation of its 2007 additions along with the Lev business it recently acquired in France from Haulotte.

Expect 2008 revenues to be well over $800 million, plus any further acquisitions it makes in 2008.

It is still hard to understand why Loxam does not follow a more aggressive expansion strategy within its non French operations rather than rely so much on a constant acquisiton strategy.