TVH Group is expanding its rental business and strengthening its pan-European activities after buying Mateco AG.

The Belgian materials handling company acquired Stuttgart-based Mateco, a leading player in Germany for rental of mobile access equipment, from independent private equity company Odewald & Compagnie of Berlin. The transaction is subject to approval by anti-trust authorities. Both parties agreed to keep the transaction details confidential.

Odewald & Compagnie acquired Mateco, a company founded in 1973, as part of a succession plan in 2007. In a buy-and-build strategy, Mateco was expanded to become a leading company in Germany in the rental of mobile access equipment, with a fleet of 4,800 working platforms in over 400 equipment types.

Mateco has opened up 13 new locations over the last five years in Germany, Poland and Luxembourg and has 560 employees. For fiscal 2012, Mateco expects sales revenues of about EUR90 million (USD117 million).

Founded in 1969 by Paul Thermote and Paul Vanhalst, the family-run TVH Group services around 20,000 customers in 160 countries worldwide, with subsidiaries and branches in 22 countries and has about 3,000 employees. The group has two main areas of operations - the sale and distribution of spare parts for materials handling and industrial equipment, and the rental of access equipment in the Benelux countries and Eastern Europe. It also sells materials handling and industrial equipment.

With the acquisition of Mateco, TVH is executing its strategy of becoming a strong pan-European provider in specialised rental business. For fiscal year 2012, TVH expects sales revenues of about EUR800 million (USD1.04 billion).

TVH Group CEO Pascal Vanhalst says the acquisition will help the company double the number of working platforms in its short-term rental fleet. "We are also backing Mateco's proven and experienced management team around CEO Armin Rappen and CFO Hans-Hasso Kersten, who will provide us with strong support in the further expansion of our rental and equipment business."

Mateco CEO Armin Rappen says TVH, as "the ideal strategic partner", will enable his company to "achieve further solid growth based within a globally active group".