NEWS/PRESS

August 10, 2005
AmQuip Withdrew $375 Million Bid and Re-Invested

AmQuip “The Crane People” made an aggressive attempt to purchase a nationwide crane rental company in 2004. Although the competitor was in bankruptcy proceedings, AmQuip believed that the $425,000,000 it had available to purchase the bankrupt competitor could help turn that company around.

However, as things unfolded, AmQuip withdrew its offer, and re-focused on strengthening and adding to its existing business. In the short period of time that has elapsed since AmQuip “The Crane People” withdrew its bid, here are a few transactions that they have completed:

- Purchased the Tower Crane Division of Skyline Crane, a Philadelphia based tower crane company.

- Ordered $60,000,000 worth of NEW tower cranes to strengthen AmQuip’s position as a leader in the US Tower Crane rental market.

- Purchased a 15 acre facility with a 42,000 square foot Bridge Crane serviced building in Birmingham, Alabama to headquarter the Tower Crane Rental Division.

- Increased presence of crawler cranes and rough terrain cranes in the southern region on bare rentals.

- Added the expertise of Dennis Bates as its Vice President of its Tower Crane Division.

- Purchased the crane division of a large northeast steel erector.

- Purchased land and built a state-of-the-art facility for the Cincinnati Ohio Region, currently home to over 100 cranes and an outside storage facility on 15 acres located on I-75.

- Purchased $25,000,000 worth of cranes to meet the demands of the existing crane rental fleet.

- Updated the support equipment with the addition of several new tractors, trailers, special hauling trailers, and ancillary vehicles worth $5,000,000.

- Entered the material handling market with the acquisition of the assets of a local material handling company.

As one can clearly see, Joseph L. Wesley and the AmQuip team have been busy. It looks as though the money that AmQuip was prepared to offer for the bankrupt competitor, Maxim, has been put to a much better use.

General Manager, Frank Bardonaro, simply states “We believe the experience we had last year with the attempt to buyout the bankrupt Maxim Group was good for everyone. However, we decided that by re-investing in AmQuip and our great employees, we would ultimately get to a stronger position in a shorter period of time. We know that this is a business founded and built with great employees. Joseph L. Wesley has continued to focus on assuring that AmQuip has the best working conditions and availability of the best equipment and facilities in the world. Our focus has been and will continue to be on taking care of the AmQuip family, so that the AmQuip family can be successful in taking care of our customers!”

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