Business News: Mergers and acquisitions rife in road building

There have been a number of acquisitions and mergers in the road construction industry during the past 12 months.

Earlier this year, Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) bought Ingersoll Rand's road development division, at a cost of US $1.3 billion. A world-leading manufacturer of heavy equipment for road construction and soil compaction, it had revenues of US $864 million in 2006 and an operating income of $101 million.

Volvo chief executive officer, Leif Johansson, said, “The acquisition is strategically important since it will improve the overall competitiveness of Volvo CE as a full-range supplier of construction equipment.”

In February this year, Atlas Copco entered into an agreement with Altor 2003 Fund to acquire Dynapac AB of Sweden. Meanwhile, JCB Vibromax has seen “dramatic increases in production” and a rise of almost +70% in global sales of ride-on machines in the first full year since JCB acquired the business.