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Konecranes has published a summary of calendar year 2007, which goes live on this site first thing on Monday morning. It's fascinating to reflect on the way the manufacturing giant kept its shareholders up to date... On February 14, Konecranes revealed that chief financial officer (CFO) Teuvo Rintamäki was set to leave the company, citing a need for change. Rintamäki was a member of the group management team since it was formed after an MBO-transaction in 1994. CEO Pekka Lundmark said: "I understand and respect Rintamäki's decision, although I would have preferred to see him continue his successful career within the crane industry for many years to come." It took until July 2 to name Teo Ottola (MSc) as new CFO. Personnel changes are significant to Konecranes, as is its brand development, a point proved in March when it changed its parent company name from KCI Konecranes Plc to Konecranes Plc. Later that month, it signed a letter of intent regarding the sale of six properties located in Hyvinkää and Hämeenlinna, Finland (to the Swedish real estate company AB Sagax) comprising buildings of approximately, 74,000 square metres and a land area of roughly 240,000 square metres, which are currently mainly in production, warehouse and office use. Acquisitions In June, Konecranes signed an agreement to acquire 19% of the share capital in South African crane manufacturer Dynamic Crane Systems Ltd. (DCS). DCS has annual net sales of approximately Euros 4 million and 60 employees. Soon after, Lundmark hinted at further acquisitions and in early August it acquired Finnish-based container handling software specialist Savcor One Oy. The company, which is part of Savcor Group, is based in Vantaa and provides products and services to more than 20 leading container ports all over the world. It then snapped up two machine tool service companies in Scandinavia, one in Norway and one in Sweden. The agreements were actually signed in July. Next was the ports service business of Italian service company Technical Services SRL. The acquired operation specialises in providing maintenance and engineering services to port terminals, shipyards, shipping companies and related equipment manufacturers. Further development was witnessed in South Africa, where Konecranes bought into manufacturer Dynamic Crane Systems. The company was formerly a Konecranes licencee. Konecranes is planning a complete takeover of the business in two years. A stalwart resigned soon after when group director, administration and business development and member of the group executive board, Arto Juosila, left his position to pursue personal interests. Juosila has worked for Konecranes for more than 27 years. His responsibilities were divided between existing executive board members. The last significant story of the year was the appointment of Pekka Lettijeff as chief procurement officer (CPO). His areas of responsibility will include all direct and indirect purchasing across the Konecranes Group. Lettijeff will be a member of the Konecranes Group executive board and will report to Pekka Lundmark, president and CEO. Lettijeff will start in his new position on February 1 2008. As I said at the outset, a more in-depth summary will go live on Monday. I'll try to be in touch after the weekend, myself, but fly to Dubai, UAE, later that day to start the build-up for Middle East Cranes: Driving Construction, the conference we organise with sister publication Cranes Today, to be held at the Shangri-La Hotel, January 30-31. Richard Howes, Editor email:
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