Sany Heavy Industry Co., run by China’s richest man, and a partner will pay 360 million euros ($472 million) for concrete-pump maker Putzmeister Holding GmbH to add technology and expand overseas.

The Chinese construction-equipment maker will buy 90 percent of Putzmeister for 324 million euros and Citic PE Advisors (Hong Kong) Ltd. will purchase the balance, it said in a Shanghai stock exchange statement yesterday. The deal may be completed by March 1, pending regulatory approvals, the Changsha, China-based company said.

Sany rose as much as 4.5 percent in Shanghai trading after announcing the acquisition and saying that profit probably rose more than 60 percent last year. Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co. also plans to build a plant in the U.S. as Chinese construction-equipment makers seek to challenge Caterpillar Inc. and Komatsu Ltd. internationally.

“The Putzmeister brand will give Sany an appeal that it doesn’t have at the moment to customers in developed countries,” said Liu Rong, an analyst with China Merchants Securities Co. “This deal is also a milestone. Who could have imagined even a few years ago that a Chinese company would buy such a renowned firm?”

Source:cmbol.com