10.09.2009

Troni buys Socage

Paolo Troni the Italian entrepreneur who acquired Cela earlier this year has also reached agreed a deal to purchase Socage from loader crane company Fassi.

No official statement has been released yet, but we have now confirmed that the deal has been closed and completed. A new holding company - 'First Step' has been set up to acquire Socage.

We also understand that Fiorenzo Flisi, one of the founders of Oil & Steel has joined Troni as a key investor in this business and has been appointed as president of Socage .

Flisi purchased the design rights and tooling for Mister Gru’s mobile cranes last year to form MCI, after having sold his shares in Oil&Steel to BS Private Equity in 2007.
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Fiorenzo Flisi

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Paulo Troni

Troni was previously a partner in Rent-Up the Italian rental company but departed after a divergence of opinion on future strategy with his Rent-Up partner Fulvio Borgogno.
Click here to see Troni takes on Cela
Socage builds a full range of truck mounted lifts and has been flirting with plans to build a 100 metre plus model to rival Bronto and Wumag.

It also has a decent range of Spider lifts although it is not a significant player in this market. There is some overlap between the product lines of Cela and Socage, but Cela obtains most of its business from the Fire fighting market while Socage is focused on the industrial market.

As soon as we obtain more detail we will update this report.

Vertikal Comment

Fassi has been looking to offload Socage for the past year or so and is believed to have concluded the deal in principle in July, but have still to announce or confirm it officially.

Fassi has not had its heart in the Socage business for some time so passing the business on to a new owner, particularly one with the experience of Flisi and energy of Troni should rejuvenate Socage.

The key will be the funding levels available to the new business, assuming that this has been sorted, this will not be good news for other truck mounted lift producers.