Veri-Tek International Completes Purchase of Liftking

Wixom, Mich.-based Veri-Tek International Corp. announced it has completed its acquisition of Liftking Industries, Inc., Woodridge, Ontario, manufacturer of rough-terrain forklifts, special mission-oriented vehicles, heavy material-handling transporters, steel mill equipment, and other specialized carriers. Liftking has 170 dealers worldwide.

Liftking was purchased by a wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary of Veri-Tek, Manitex Liftking. The purchase price of $6.9 million ($8 million CAD) is subject to working capital adjustments and was paid with a combination of stock and cash. VCC Canada also assumed certain trade payable and other liabilities of approximately $2.4 million ($2.8 million CAD). The book value of Liftking's assets as of the closing is approximately $9.5 million ($10.9 CAD), and for the trailing 12 months that ended July 30, 2006, it generated a revenue of approximately $17.9 million ($20.5 million CAD).

“We are very excited about the addition of Liftking to the Veri-Tek organizations,” said David J. Langevin, chairman and chief operating officer of Veri-Tek. “We believe that the integration of the Liftking organization will result in procurement efficiencies that provide reduced component costs and other synergies, which will have an immediate impact on the profitability to the Veri-Tek group of companies.”

The purchase of Liftking comes on the heels of Veri-Tek's purchase of Georgetown, Texas-based Manitex earlier this year. “We believe that Liftking is a natural addition to the Manitex boom truck and lifting platform,” Langevin said.

Mark Aldrovandi will continue to serve as the president of Manitex Liftking. “We believe Liftking has a bright future and being part of the larger company will only provide us greater opportunity to achieve our growth goals,” he said. “Manitex and Liftking will be able to integrate customer contacts, distribution, and product knowledge to further develop market share and manufacturing efficiencies.”