Lavendon Board Recommends Accepting Loxam Acquisition Offer
French rental giant Loxam, the largest equipment rental company in Europe, appears poised to complete a takeover of Lavendon, U.K.-based rental company that primarily specializes in aerial equipment, after Belgium-based TVH said it won’t raise its bid and the board of Lavendon endorsed Loxan’s offer. TVH said it will not offer more than the 261 pence per share it offered recently, after which Loxam raised its bid to 270 pence per share.
Lavendon’s board unanimously recommended that shareholders accept Loxam’s offer. However, Lavendon chairman John Standen said “As our recent full year trading update demonstrated, Lavendon is a company in robust health, uniquely positioned across diverse geographic markets, with strong revenue growth, cash flow and return on capital employed.”
Standen noted that “Loxam has recognized the inherent value in our business and we believe that its all-cash offer provides Lavendon’s shareholders with an opportunity to realize significant value at an attractive premium to the pre-offer period share price, whilst securing early delivery of Lavendon’s potential against a backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty.”
Lavendon had been trading at 205 pence per share prior to TVH’s initial offer.
“Loxam is the largest equipment rental company in Europe with a strong management team that shares our belief in the strengths of our people and our growth drivers,” Standen added. “We are confident that Loxam is the right partner to take Lavendon to the next chapter of its growth story.”
“We believe the transaction will anchor Loxam as one of the leading worldwide access equipment rental companies, will reinforce Loxam’s leadership in the European equipment rental market and represents a unique opportunity to increase its scale and business profile,” said Gerard Deprez, Loxam president. “We are looking forward to working with the highly skilled Lavendon team.”
Lavendon is headquartered in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, U.K., and has operations in the U.K., Belgium, France, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.
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.