With its strategic focus on fast-growing markets, KION Group brand Linde Material Handling is acquiring its long-time Russian dealer Liftec.
Linde has partnered with Liftec for about 20 years.
"The transaction will help us to further expand our direct sales and service organisation in Russia, thereby strengthening our leading position in Eastern Europe," KION Group CEO Gordon Riske explains.
"We anticipate sustained rapid growth in markets like Brazil, India and China. To take advantage of this, we aim to continually expand our presence in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries and to expand both our existing sales and service network and our local production capacities in these fast-growing regions," Riske adds.
According to KION's market intelligence, Russia is now the fifth-largest industrial market in Europe with over 12,000 new trucks sold in the first six months of 2011. Demand has doubled compared to the same period in 2010. Linde is also increasing its presence in Ukraine and Kazakhstan by taking over the operations of two other Liftec divisions.
Liftec employs about 180 staff in these regions. The takeover gives the Linde brand greater direct access to the Russian market. It will have its own sales and service structure in Russia, like the STILL brand, which is already established there.
The transaction will be finalised after approval by antitrust authorities.
Separately, in Brazil, KION is currently expanding its production capacities to meet growing demand. Production at a new internal combustion forklift plant in São Paulo is scheduled to start in 2012. The existing Rio de Janeiro plant manufactures warehouse technology for the STILL and Linde brands.
In India, KION's joint venture, Voltas Material Handling, has started operations at a new plant in Pune to exploit the potential in the growing Indian market.
Meanwhile, the Linde brand has been established in China for almost 20 years. Its Xiamen plant has been producing forklifts mainly for the Chinese market, for over 25 years and is KION's third-biggest plant after Aschaffenburg and Hamburg. The low-end Baoli brand ranks among the top 10 Chinese brands in the industry and is targeted at the Chinese, Eastern European and Central and South American markets.
Separately, KION's supervisory board has decided to extend the contract of Harald Pinger as an executive board member for an extra four years. This means Pinger, 51, will remain KION's chief financial officer until 31 July 2016.
Supervisory board chairman Johannes Huth says Pinger has led the company's finance function with great success, especially over the past three years, which have been dominated by "the most severe crisis in the history of the industrial trucks industry".
Riske agrees: "Harald Pinger has played an extremely important role in securing the sustained confidence of the capital markets in the strength and the long-term prospects of the KION Group. April 2011 saw our first successful step into the capital markets with the issue of a corporate bond. I look forward to continue working with Harald Pinger."
KION is Europe's leading industrial truck manufacturer with its six brands - Linde, STILL, Fenwick, OM, Baoli and Voltas. Linde Material Handling GmbH, based in Aschaffenburg, is one of the key producers of hydrostatic and electric drive systems, used on its forklifts, as well as in construction, agricultural and forestry machinery. It employs a global workforce of over 12,000 employees. In 2010, its annual revenue was about EUR2.3 billion (USD3.2 billion). KION employs over 20,000 people and its 2010 revenue was over EUR3.5 billion (USD4.9 billion)