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Finland’s Konecranes Buys 51% In WMI Cranes For Rs 169Cr

By Madhav A Chanchani

  • 25 Feb 2011

Finnish cranes manufacturer Konecranes plc has entered the Indian market by acquiring a 51% stake in Mumbai-based WMI Cranes Ltd. for Rs 169 crore. Konecranes, one of the largest players globally in the lifting businesses, also has the option to buy the remaining stake by the end of the year based on performance incentives. Konecranes expects to purchase the remaining 49% by end of 2011 which would put the total acquisition cost at Rs 360 crore (EUR 60 million).

WMI Cranes is owned by its Managing Director Gopal Vazirani and his family with an installed base of over 4,000 cranes in India. The firm has an extensive sales network throughout the country and its cranes

supplied within steel, engineering, general manufacturing, cement, energy, shipyard and logistics industries. WMI operates two production plants, one in Mumbai and one in Jejuri, near Pune with a capacity of

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4000 tons per year.

For the year ended March 31, 2010, WMI’s net sales amounted to Rs 188.16 crore (EUR 30 million) and the company has an order book of more than Rs 313.6 crore (EUR 50 million). WMI employs approximately 350 people and additionally contracted workforce of about 600 persons. Other players in the crane business in India include Action Construction Equipment Ltd (backed by Reliance Capital) and CLSA Capital-backed Sanghvi Movers.

Konecranes provides productivity-enhancing lifting solutions as well as services for lifting equipment and machine tools of all makes. In 2009, Group sales totaled Rs 10,480 crore (EUR 1,671 million). The

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Group has 10,000 employees at 578 locations in 46 countries. Konecranes is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.

"WMI boosts our presence significantly in the fast growing Indian crane market. Our aim is to further grow the business potential by extending the offering with technologies developed by Konecranes. The

product offerings of the two companies complement each other very well. Furthermore, the acquisition of WMI adds India truly into our sourcing and supply network. Finally, WMI creates an excellent base

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for building our service business in India, in addition to our growing current service business, via its vast installed crane base,” said Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO of Konecranes.

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