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Harsco Acquisition Expands Eastern European Presence
Aug. 31, 2007 Harsco Corp. recently expanded its services within the growing Eastern European steel industry with the acquisition of Alexander Mill Services International, a privately held company that provides mill services to some of the leading steel producers in Poland and Romania. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Alexander will join Harsco's MultiServ mill services division, which operates at more than 160 mills worldwide as the world's largest on-site service partner to the steel and metals industries. The acquisition of Alexander, which also provides steel mill services in Greece and Portugal, increases MultiServ's global operations from 32 countries to 35 countries.
Alexander posted 2006 revenues in excess of $21 million and is expected to be immediately accretive to Harsco's earnings. Its established footprint in Poland and Romania provides an immediate platform to expand into the region's growing steel industry revitalization, as new multi-national owners (many of them existing Harsco customers) continue to implement significant steel plant modernization and expansion programs to support the region's burgeoning infrastructure growth. Having recently become members of the European Union, both countries now have broader access to international markets and capital.
"Alexander is uniquely positioned to expand its services at existing customer sites as well as new locations in Eastern Europe,” commented Salvatore D. Fazzolari, Harsco's President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. “We plan to leverage this very solid foundation by progressively introducing the broader range of value-adding services available from our industry-leading MultiServ service portfolio. As the re-energized steel industry within Eastern Europe continues to steadily grow, we intend to grow with it."
Eastern Europe is one of several emerging growth regions, along with the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America, that Harsco has targeted for additional expansion as the company continues to add to the geographic balance of its global portfolio of businesses.
Harsco Corp. is one of the world's leading diversified industrial services companies, serving major customers in the non-residential construction, steel and metals, energy and railway industries. The company posted 2006 revenues of $3.4 billion and employs approximately 21,500 people worldwide. Harsco's common stock is a component of the S&P MidCap 400 Index and the Russell 1000 Index.