WORLD NEWS
■
Jeremy
Fish
has been
appointed as the
new managing
director of
Nationwide
Platforms, Lavendon Group’s UK
subsidiary.
He takes over from
Mike Potts
,
who resigned from the position in
the third quarter of last year. Mr
Potts joined the company in 2010
and left to pursue a new career
opportunity, said a spokesman.
Mr Fish has a strong background
in the rental industry in the UK
and international markets. He
worked for Aggreko from 2004
to 2012 in a number of senior
roles in North America, Eastern
Europe, and the Middle East. Most
recently he has been involved
with Ainscough Crane Hire in the
UK as a consultant, focusing on
the development of initiatives to
improve business performance.
■
Riwal has appointed
Nick
Field
as country
manager of
its German
operation. He
has extensive
managerial
experience through car rental.
PEOPLE
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
8
access
INTERNATIONAL
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014
Company
Currency Start date Previous Current
%
21/6/02 11/09/13 24/01/14 change
Acces Industrie
€
1.34
2.42
3.20
32
Aichi Corporation YEN(¥)
208
489
467
-4.5
Ashtead Group
UK£
0.47
6.83
7.70
12.7
Kanamoto
YEN(¥)
–
2536
2725
7.5
Lavendon
£
1.85
1.75
1.95
11.4
Haulotte Group
€
9.00
9.35
10.54
12.7
Oshkosh Corp
US$
–
49.70
50.96
2.5
Tanfield Group
UK£
–
0.18
0.16
-11.1
Terex Corp
US$
23.08
34.78
37.92
9
Ramirent
€
15.00
9.56
8.90
-6.9
United Rentals
US$
21.47
64.78
79.50
22.7
ASI INDEX
100
434.31
483.51
11.3
access
SHARE INDEX (ASI)
21 June 2002 = 100 base
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■
Lavendon Group
has reported flat rental revenues for 2013 and said it was
confident that profit would reach expected levels, with growth in France and the
Middle East offsetting shrinking revenues in the UK, Germany and Belgium. In
Germany “teething issues” with the implementation of a new IT platform in the
third quarter led to a 13% fall in the final three months of 2013. It led to a 7%
reduction for the full year.
■
Ramirent
has slightly lowered its financial outlook for the full year 2013
following weaker than expected markets mainly in Finland and Norway during
the final quarter of the year. The company now expects 2013 EBITDA (profit
before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) to be around
€
92 million,
compared to the previous forecast of slightly below the
€
100.6 million achieved
in 2012.
■
Linamar’s
industrial division, which is largely made up by Skyjack, reported
a sales increase of 25.1% to US$127.6 million in the third quarter of 2013,
compared the same period in 2012. Operating earnings stood at $6.7 million or
an impressive 837.5% over the third quarter in 2012, when the figure stood at
$0.8 million. For the three months operating earnings stood at $46.8 million, up
from $22.3 million in 2012.
■
Ashtead Group
joined the FTSE 100 list of major UK stock exchange quoted
on Friday 20 December. The FTSE 100 is one of the key business lists in the UK
and Europe, comprising the top 100 capitalised business on the London Stock
Exchange. Ashtead has seen its share price increase steadily during 2013, from
around £4.30 at the start of the year to the current high of more than £7.70.
Bobcat has launched its 18 m reach T40180 telescopic handler at
the Intermat Middle East exhibition in Abu Dhabi, UAE. According to
the company’s regional director for the Middle East & Africa, Gaby
Rhayem, telescopic handlers are a small but fast-growing segment in
the region.
“The market [for telescopic handlers) is growing at 10% per year.
The Middle East is focussed on excavators, loaders and skid steer
loaders, but there is good growth in telehandlers and the market is
now around 550 machines per year.
“We are moving the mentality of our customers in the middle east
to more ‘fancy’ machines like telehandlers, mini excavators and
tracked loaders,” he said.
Palfinger takes double
Austria, and operates a
manufacturing and assembly plant
in Weng im Gesäuse, (Austrian
province of Styria), has so far
been owned by the Palfinger
family. Now the Palfinger Group
has acquired 85% of the company,
which generated revenue of about
€1 million in 2012, for a symbolic
purchase price of €1.
The Megarme Group,
comprised of three companies
in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar,
provides rope access technologies
and has an annual revenue of €15
million. Until now the Palfinger
has had no foot-hold in this
region of the world.
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Palfinger has acquired two access
companies, specialising in offshore
and shipping: Palfinger systems in
Austria and the Megarme Group
in UAE.
Both companies offer
special systems for accessing
and performing repair and
maintenance work on ships and
oil rigs, including interior and
exterior cleaning, rust and paint
removal, recoating, inspection and
repairs.
Palfinger systems, which
is headquartered in Salzburg,
UK-based AFI has invested £2
million (US$3.3 million) in scissors,
booms and truck mounts.
Being part of AFI’s £7.2 million
($12.2 million) overall investment
in machines and delivery vehicles
for 2013, it includes 90 Skyjack
electric scissor lifts and 15 Genie bi-
energy boom lifts, and 13 new truck
mounted platforms for the Wilson
Access fleet.
The Skyjack scissor lift
investment comprises 50 SJ3219s,
30 SJ4632s and 10 SJ3226s, whilst
the Genie booms are all Z4525s.
AFI INVESTS IN
ELECTRIC
