German loader crane and excavator manufacturer Atlas Weyhausen has been acquired by a company set up by US venture capitalists supported by Terex.

The takeover vehicle, called Atlas Construction LLC, was put together by GKM Value Partners, whose work on this was led by David Langevin, a managing director in GKM’s corporate finance department.

Until three years ago Langevin was executive vice president of Terex where he worked on the financial side for 10 years and was particularly involved in acquisitions.

Langevin told ConnectingCranes that Atlas was not being hawked around for sale at the time of the deal and that he had led the discussions, and not Terex.

Langevin said that he himself and GKM Value Partners were the two biggest shareholders in Atlas Construction, but declined to discuss other shareholders. It is understood that Terex has not supported the deal financially.

Terex executive vice president Fil Filipov, who is now in charge of all Terex acquisition activities, would be an ‘adviser’ to Atlas, Langevin said.

Filipov’s son Steve, a Terex vice president in Europe, has been seconded to Atlas as one of three managing directors.

Broadly hinting that the deal might eventually lead to a Terex takeover of Atlas, Fil Filipov said: ‘Over the longer term, both Atlas and Terex distributors could benefit from the addition of the product lines of both companies. Our objective is to help Atlas deliver products that create more value for customers.’

Fil Filipov has been looking to add knuckle boom loader cranes to Terex’s product range for several years and has unsuccessfully tried to court Effer of Italy, for whom Terex acts as a distributor in the USA. That Atlas comes with an excavator range, which may fit with the recently acquired Fermec product in the UK, might be considered a bonus.

It is the second change in ownership for Atlas in two years. In 1999 the Weyhausen family sold a controlling interest to Eder Handel und Beteiligungen GmbH, part of the Walter Eder Group.

Atlas, based in Delmenhorst near Bremen, had suffered from the downturn of the German market for both cranes and excavators. In the past two years there has been significant reorganisation and an almost completely new management team has been put in place.

Atlas operates from factories in Germany and the United Kingdom and this year expects sales in excess of DM 400m. The company has a broad distribution network for products known worldwide, including wheeled, tracked, rail and road excavators as well as truck-mounted articulated cranes.

GKM Value Partners, L.P. is a newly created private equity fund with offices in Boston, Detroit and New York. GKM Value Partners, L.P. will be assisted by Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. Inc. („GKM”). GKM, is a New York based investment firm with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tel Aviv. GKM has raised over $ 4.6 billion and advised over $ 2.4 billion of mergers and acquisitions and leveraged buyouts. Separately, the partners of GKM Value Partners, L.P. have raised over $ 2 billion covering 60 transactions.