Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Truck Corp. is poised to become a specialty vehicle powerhouse, with $6 billion in annual revenues, after signing a definitive
CP staff
Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Truck Corp. is poised to become a specialty vehicle powerhouse, with $6 billion in annual revenues, after signing a definitive agreement last month to acquire aerial work platform and telehandler market leader JLG Industries Inc. of McConnellsburg, Pa. The $3.2 billion cash deal would place Oshkosh in the top 10 of global construction equipment players, and provide balance for operations tied to cyclical defense and homeland security spending.
We have consistently executed strategies to grow this company, creating significant shareholder value during the last decade, says Oshkosh Chairman Robert Bohn. JLG is aligned with our historic acquisition strategy as we expand into complementary markets, and it will be instrumental in building our global focus and increasingly needed scale.
Since 1996, the value of Oshkosh Truck stock has risen 20-fold, based on a split-adjusted trading range of about $2.50 to $50-plus. A sharp valuation ascent began in 1999, as the stock doubled and the company assimilated the McNeilus Cos. business that it acquired in early 1998. More recently, the stock has surged as Oshkosh saw sales double over the 2001-2005 period, from $1.4 billion to $2.9 billion, reflecting robust business across the Commercial, Defense and Airport & Municipal segments.
With projected fiscal 2007 revenues of about $2.75 billion, JLG will be the newest and largest business segment under Oshkosh, followed by Commercial, whose Concrete Placement brands include namesake, McNeilus and London Machinery front- and rear-discharge mixer trucks, plus Con-E-Co plant equipment. Deals for the latter two brands were effected in 2005, and have been followed by this year’s acquisition of AK Specialty Vehicles (mobile medical equipment) and Iowa Mold Tooling (truck-mounted cranes, service vehicles). The Con-E-Co, IMT and JLG investments create Oshkosh offerings to parallel those of Terex Corp., another rapid-growth, global construction equipment player. Terex established a foothold in concrete delivery, placing and plant equipment by acquiring CMI Corp. in 2001 and Advance Mixer the following year. Also in 2002, it created an aerial work platform and telescopic handling equipment franchise by acquiring JLG competitor Genie.
CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS
WORLDWIDE LEADERS
- Caterpillar
- Komatsu
- Terex
- Deere
- Hitachi
- Volvo
- CNH
- Oshkosh*
- Ingersoll Rand
- Liebherr
* Including JLG business, Concrete Products-estimated position among global companies. List from 2006 Terex Corp. Imagine the Power presentation.