Palfinger buys into marine crane business
22 July 2010Austrian listed knuckleboom manufacturer Palfinger AG has acquired a 75% stake in Ned-Deck Marine (NDM), a Dutch manufacturer of rescue boat davits. Palfinger AG is also looking to 're-integrate' the German marine crane business owned by its founder's family.
Currently, Palfinger AG has no marine crane operations. Palfinger Systems GmbH, a privately held German company owned by the Palfinger family, does have a marine crane systems, however.
Under the new deal, it will take a majority stake in a market leading marine crane manufacturer. NDM generated revenues of €20m in 2009. It has a staff of 100, with its headquarters in the Netherlands and a production facility in Vietnam. That facility, Palfinger said, benefits from low wage costs as well as its proximity to the Chinese procurement market and to major target markets like Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam.
Palfinger AG CEO Herbert Ortner said the company is also performing due diligence on the marine crane division of the Palfinger family's privately held German business. Ortner said, “We have been interested for quite some time in re-integrating the marine crane business into Palfinger AG as a meaningful and profitable supplement to our strategy."
