Global vertical access company Alimak Group has entered into an agreement to sell its United States rental business to Bigge Crane and Rigging. Alimak operates a small rental business in the U.S., with origins that predate the merger between Alimak and Hek in 1999. The U.S. rental business has operated as a separate unit within the U.S. Alimak operation.
The purchase price was about $2.4 million, Alimak Group said.
The divestment will allow for a stronger focus on product sales as well as after sales services supporting Alimak’s entire product portfolio in the U.S. and Canada.
“The divestment is a logical step in Alimak Group’s strategy of growth in its core business as it allows our U.S. operation to fully focus on further expansion of our broad offering of products and after-sales services in North America,” said Tormod Gunleiksrud, CEO of the Alimak Group. “Bigge is one of America’s premier global crane companies and has been a long and valuable customer to Alimak. They have a vast experience of working with Alimak equipment and I feel confident that our existing rental customers will see benefits from the new owner.”
“Bigge is pleased to add Alimak’s U.S. Rental business to our operation,” added Weston Settlemier, CEO of Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. “Bigge has an extensive network of locations and expertise in rental of construction hoist and related equipment, and this addition is consistent and synergistic with our core business. Bigge has had a long-term relationship with Alimak, and Alimak product is central to Bigge’s existing fleet of construction hoists and related equipment.”
The U.S. rental business consisted of about 1 percent of Alimak Group’s total revenue in 2015.
Alimak Group’s rental business area provides rental services on Alimak’s construction hoists and platforms to customers in France, Benelux, Germany and Australia and offers sales of Alimak’s used construction equipment.
The divestment is subject to customary regulatory approvals.
Alimak Group is headquartered in Stockholm.
Bigge is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2015. It is a major rental player and owns and maintains one of the largest inventory of new and used cranes in the U.S. and globally.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.