29.03.2010

Palfinger enters US access market

Palfinger has acquired an 80 percent stake in Oklahoma City based truck mounted aerial lift manufacturer ETI (Equipment Technology, LLC).

Palfinger is calling this acquisition a “strategic partnership” as the current owners are maintaining a significant shareholding and will continue to run the company. Products, largely bucket trucks, are both standard and fully insulated.
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One of ETI's vehicle mounted lifts

ETI has 190 employees at three locations, with revenues of around $45 million in 2009, in addition to lifts it produces cranes for service trucks following the acquisition of Ideal Crane in 2007.
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A larger EFI crane

The deal will boost Palfinger’s revenues by around six percent, while North American revenues as a percentage of the whole will rise from 12 percent to around 18 percent.

Palfinger chief executive Herbert Ortner said: “We have known ETI for a long time and are excited that the company is becoming part of the Palfinger Group. ETI allows us to realise our strategy of becoming a truly local player in one of our strategic core business segments.”

Vertikal Comment

ETI has grown rapidly in recent years and says that it was “looking for a strategic investor in order to support further growth” and believes that it has found this with Palfinger.

The deal does several things for Palfinger, it increase its share of the service truck lift crane market, while giving it a significant foothold in the North American truck mounted aerial lift market. With some work the company could also follow Time/Versalift’s lead and export some of the superstructures to Europe? The insulated knowledge base could also prove useful and may help it extend its utility business?

ETI may well be able to add the larger Wumag products to its product offering in order to give Bronto some competition at the top end of the market?
All in all it looks like a good move.