PM reorganises ownership

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PM Group owns Autogru PM loader cranes, OIl & Steel aerial work platforms and Pilosio scaffolding. The majority of the firm continues to be owned by international venture-capital firm B&S Private Equity, which bought into the firm in 2002.

Giuliano Asperti has been named PM Group president, and Luigi Fucili, Autogru PM managing director, has been named chief operations officer of PM Group (although he remains in charge of the cranes).

Before June, B&S owned 87% of PM Group, and senior managers owned the rest. Three senior managers, including former managing director Marco Milesi, sold their shares.

Now, B&S holds 60% of the group and 9% is held by about 10 senior managers, including Fucili, who took a larger share, and PM sales manager Mr Tacconi. The remaining 31% is held by new investor Felofin, the investment company of Italian entrepreneur Claudio Luti.

"Last year, we started a project to go into the stock exchange," Fucili told Cranes Today. "We have got at the time a green light from the Italian government. But the problem was the price. It was timed during a period, in June, where the price we could get to invest in funds was not good to sell the shares, so we decided to have another cycle of the product equity fund, for the next 3-4 years."

Fucili said that he forecasts total turnover for the PM group to be EUR 175m, and EUR 85m for cranes. The company will have produced between 4,400 and 4,500 cranes by the end of the year.

• PM has announced its first subsidiary in South America, a four-person sales and service company in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fucili said that it was uneconomical to set up a branch in Brazil. "Because of the presence of local players–Madal and two or three others–the taxes in Brazil push us out of the market." He says that the company expects to sell 500 cranes in the region in 2008.

• PM has also announced a new subsidiary in Madrid, Spain. "We have a strong network of dealers and distributors," Fucili said, and a local-area manager from the firm's Modena, Italy headquarters, "but we want to enter the central areas of Spain, where Palfinger is strong." The organisation will aim to offer parts deliveries within 24 hours, organise periodic training for dealers and do telephone support. "Spain sells less cranes than Italy in terms of units, but they are bigger cranes. It is a key market, and we fight competitors like Transgrúas, MIX and Hiab."

PM showed J510 and J710 loader crane jibs at SAIE. With a negative angle of up to 20 degrees, the jibs can compensate for boom deflection. They can be fitted with up to four hydraulic extensions and a winch. New jibs from PM