Platinum Equity’s Maxim Crane Adds
Infrastructure push has made crane operators more attractive for M&A lately.
June 25, 2009
Platinum Equity’s Maxim Crane Works LP has begun its buildout Thursday with the buy of Barnhart Crane and Rigging assets. Terms were not disclosed.
At a time when infrastructure has been tagged by President Barack Obama to be deserving of additional funding and development, companies to support an anticipated growth in spending have been increasingly viewed as potential targets.
Late last year, Hyde Park Acquisition Co., a blank check company, brought public Essex Rental Corp., which manages cranes used for construction. While the company’s shares are still trading under the level at which the SPAC’s trust was pegged, Essex has rebounded more than 100% in value from the low of $3 per share where the company’s stock traded in the midst of the stock markets’ precipitous 2008 fall.
Art Innamorato, Maxim’s chief executive, said the asset buy “adds to an investment of over $60 million made in the last 18 months to expand our fleet of 230- to 300-ton sized crawlers.” Louis Samson, the Platinum Equity principal who led the firm’s 2008 buy of the crane company, called the asset buy “another step… to support Maxim’s acquisition program and play a leading role in the consolidation of the industry;” it seems that the PE shop will continue to make buys to support the company in the future.
In July 2008, Maxim was bought by Platinum Equity at $42.50 per share in a public-to-private transaction.
Alan Barnhart, president of Barnhart, said the asset sale was planned under the company’s integration of its 2008 acquisition of SG Marino Crane Service Corporation.
Maxim Crane, which is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
Since its founding in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity has completed nearly 100 acquisitions with more than $27.5 billion in aggregate annual revenue at the time of acquisition.
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