Doosan to buy Bobcat

Doosan Infracore Has Agreed To Pay US$ 4,9 Billion (€3,66 billion) to acquire Ingersoll Rand's construction equipment businesses, including Bobcat, the world's largest manufacturer of compact equipment. The deal is the biggest ever overseas acquisition by a South Korean company, and is the also the largest ever acquisition in the construction equipment sector.

The acquisition includes Ingersoll Rand's attachments and utility equipment businesses, as well as Bobcat. These had total sales of US$ 2,6 billion (€1,94 billion) last year, and generated operating profits of US$ 370 million (€ 276 million). The assets being acquired include 16 factories in six countries around the world, and it also gives Doosan access to a network of more than 2700 dealers in the US and Europe.

Upon completion of the deal, Doosan Infracore will have a combined network of over 3700 dealers worldwide and 20 manufacturing plants in various countries, including the US, China, Belgium, France and the Czech Republic. As a result, said the company, it will be well positioned to become a market leader in the US, Europe, and China. Sales are expected to reach US$ 7.4 billion, which, it said, will improve its worldwide ranking from 19th to 7th in the construction equipment sector.

Yongmaan Park, vice chairman of Doosan Infracore commented, "The businesses we are acquiring have outstanding management personnel and engineers, which we consider to be the most important criteria of our acquisition strategy. We therefore plan to maintain the current management to best utilise their expertise and skills in an effort to evolve Doosan Infracore into a truly global company."

Doosan says that it will continue to run its existing businesses and the Ingersoll Rand businesses separately following the acquisition. This includes maintaining separate dealer networks.