Rentokil Initial has sold its PTP aerial work platforms business to Loxam, a French company, for £23.8m.
Loxam is a general construction equipment hire company active in Belgium and Germany as well as France. Its fleet runs to 35,000 machines.
The acquisition of PTP, now called PTP Access Ltd, represents Loxam’s entry to the UK market. It is not yet known whether it intends to restrict itself to the aerial work platform, or use the acquisition to expand into the UK general equipment market.
PTP had 1999 sales of £18.2m and an operating profit of £3.5m. With about 1,500 platforms, PTP is one of the top three UK players in its sector.
The sale by Rentokil Initial is part of a strategic refocusing by the facilities management conglomerate. Also up for sale is the GWS crane hire business. According to industry rumour, the crawler crane and mobile crane divisions are likely to be split up, with Weldex of Scotland thought favourite to take over the crawler division.
