Terex Corp. is raising $800 million through the sale of notes, planning to use more than a third of the proceeds to pay off existing debt and the remainder for acquisitions, capital expenditures and other investments.
Westport-based Terex competes with Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar Inc., Bermuda-based Ingersoll Rand Company Ltd. and other companies selling heavy construction equipment and vehicles.
In early November, Terex announced it would spend $140 million to buy out Superior Highwall Miners Inc., a Beckley, W.Va., company that is owned by Lehman Brothers. Superior Highwall Miners sells machines that drill horizontal shafts up to 1,000 feet into the side of a coal quarry. The company has 95 employees.
In the third quarter, Terex had a $152 million profit on $2.2 billion in revenue, with sales up 13 percent and profits up 50 percent from the third quarter of 2006.
The company”™s road-building division, which sells pavers and concrete mixers, was the only unit to hit a rough patch, posting a $2.5 million loss in operating profits on $149 million in revenue, a 16 percent sales decline.
Separately, in October Terex sold a so-called crawler crane that it says is the largest in the world. The crane can lift 3,200 tons and carry the load to another site.
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