Belgian lifting group Arcomet is planning to expand in the European tower crane hire market after receiving a $20m cash injection.

The money has come from three investment companies: GIMV and Sofinim of Belgium and NPM Capital of the Netherlands. The new investors have acquired a minority share of the business.

The original shareholders, brothers Leo and Dirk Theyskens, are also putting a further $2.7m into the business.

Arcomet manufactures tower cranes, operates a fleet of towers for hire, and also distributes Tadano Faun mobile cranes.

It claims to be the ‘largest European player’ in the tower crane rental market, with a fleet of more than 750 cranes.

It forecasts sales of more than BEF2bn ($45m) this year, up from BEF1.56bn last year and BEF1.16 three years ago.

The company plans to use the money to consolidate the European tower crane hire market. Already this year it has bought the French hire company Lafont & Cie.

Dirk Theyskens said that further acquisitions of European rental companies were planned, and five companies were already being targeted.

He said that Arcomet did not plan to develop any new crane products with the money but would instead concentrate its efforts on “specialising in crane rental”.