Under the stock symbol HY, shares of Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 1 October, opening at USD43 per share.

Nacco Industries Inc spun off the forklift business - by far Nacco's largest unit - to its stockholders as a tax-free dividend at the close of business on 28 September. Nacco, which trades on the exchange under the NC symbol, did not receive any proceeds from the spin-off because no new shares were issued.

For the 12 months ended 30 June, the Hyster-Yale business had a profit of USD81.8 million on sales of USD2.54 billion.

Without Hyster-Yale, Mayfield Heights-based Nacco had a profit of USD45.3 million on sales of USD813.6 million. Nacco's ongoing subsidiaries are Hamilton Beach Brands Inc, The Kitchen Collection LLC and North American Coal Corp.

The dividend included one share of Hyster-Yale Class A common stock and one share of Hyster-Yale Class B common stock for each share of Nacco Industries Class A or Class B common stock.

A 24 September Nacco presentation for investors explained the business rationale and how "the spin-off satisfies important business objectives for Hyster-Yale".

The spin-off "creates greater flexibility to pursue strategic growth opportunities such as acquisitions and joint ventures in the materials handling industry, reinforces management's focus on serving each of Hyster-Yale's market segments and customer application needs, provides Hyster-Yale with direct access to equity capital markets and greater access to debt capital markets, strengthens the alignment of senior management incentives with the needs and performance of the company (and) provides investors with a focused investment option in the materials handling business".