23.12.2003

Scaninter changes hands

Germany-based scaffolding group, plettac AG, yesterday announced the sale of the majority ownership of its Scaninter Group subsidiary, which manufacturers the Scanclimber mast climbing work platforms and personnel/material hoists. A management buy-out team, comprising of Scaninter Group managing director, Juha Asikainen, and chairman, Markku Simanainen, the original founders of the Scaninter Group and previously minority shareholders of the firm, have together purchased 55 per cent of ownership.

A Saninter official said that Asikainen and Simanainen decided to purchase the majority of the shares from plettac, which has been in financial trouble since the beginning of the year, to regain independence of Scaninter and secure future growth.

According to the company, the ownership change has had hardly any effect on daily business operations at Scaninter as the company has already for some time now been operationally independent and has been largely operating outside of plettac group.

*The announcement comes just a few days after the purchase of US-based access equipment manufacturer and supplier, Bil-Jax, again from parent company plettac AG, by a partnership between a Bil-Jax management team and Indianapolis-based Centerfield Capital (see Vertikal.net news section December 22, 2003)

A Bil-Jax official said that plettac AG had been forced into bankruptcy in 2003 due to very difficult economic conditions in Germany and throughout Europe. Although Bil-Jax had its own independent capital structure under plettac, the pressure to grow in a difficult economy had been intense since it was one of the few self-supporting companies under the plettac umbrella.