MAMMOET president Frans van Seumeren has revealed that he has abandoned plans for an initial public offering for his company.
Van Seumeren said in September 2000 that he was aiming to take his company public in 2003. Last month at the Conexpo show in Las Vegas he revealed that he had changed his plans.
This is not the first time that Van Seumeren has turned away from flotation. In early 1999 he was considering an IPO for the company Van Seumeren but delayed actions when the opportunity to acquire its rival Mammoet arose.
Mammoet, as Van Seumeren’s company is now called, has instead sough to grow through joint ventures, notaby with another Dutch crane hire and trading company, Hovago. Hovago and Mammoet jointly own Holift, a crawler crane rental business that specialises in the 250t to 500t niche. Mammoet itself undertakes heavy lifting contracts above this market and crane rental below it.
Holift, whose cranes are all in Mammoet colours, placed an order with Liebherr at Conexpo for 10 units of the LR 1350/1 and two of the LR 1450/2. This takes Holift’s fleet to more than 40 cranes.
Holift also announced that it has formed a joint venture with Irga of Brazil, called Mammoet Irga Brazil (MIB). MIB has three Manitowoc crawlers and will get one of the new LR 1450/2s.
The LR 1450/2 is the Mammot/Holift name for what Liebherr calls the LR 1400.
Mammoet itself spent about E50m on new cranes last year (with E30m of those orders going to Liebherr), and it plans to spend a similar amount this year.
