The Shyft Group Inc. is preparing to merge with Swiss peer Aebi Schmidt Group, a move Shyft President and CEO John Dunn said “supercharges” the Michigan-based company’s strategy.
The proposed combination of Shyft and Aebi Schmidt will create a company with annual sales of about $2 billion, three-quarters of which will come from North American customers, and adjusted EBITDA of roughly $200 million. The combined company will bring together Aebi Schmidt’s portfolio of vehicles and equipment for commercial trucks, snow-and-ice clearing and street sweeping—including through the Monroe and Towmaster brands—with Shyft’s expertise in upfitting commercial, retail and service specialty vehicles.
“This transaction creates a more resilient company with meaningful growth opportunities in the commercial truck space and infrastructure-related solutions,” Dunn said in a statement. “I am confident Shyft’s talented team members will thrive within this newly combined platform and that this transaction is the best path forward to unlocking value for our shareholders.”
Aebi Schmidt investors will initially own 52% of the combined company’s shares. The merged business will be domiciled in Switzerland but still be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The merger is expected to close in the middle of next year.
For Aebi Schmidt, the proposed Shyft deal builds on other North American acquisitions over the past decade. In addition to M-B Companies in 2018 and Monroe Truck Equipment in 2021, Group CEO Barend Fruithof and his team last year also acquired the snow removal business of Oshkosh Corp. for about $17 million. Those purchases and organic growth have grown Aebi Schmidt’s North American unit to nine plants, about 1,500 workers and more than $500 million in annual sales.
Executives of Shyft and Aebi Schmidt say that bringing together their businesses will create the third-largest specialty vehicles manufacturer by revenue, behind REV Group and Palfinger. Together, the companies will leapfrog Federal Signal and Alamo Group, among other competitors.
Dunn and Fruithof, a banking veteran who has led Aebi Schmidt since 2017, said they expect the merger of their teams to over time result in $20 million to $25 million of cost savings as production and uplift work becomes more efficient across the combined company’s network of plants. Fruithof will lead the merged business and Dunn said he will stay on for a limited time to help with the integration and, with Fruithof, recruit a new CFO to replace the departing Jon Douyard.
Asked on a conference call about any possible impact on Shyft’s new line of BlueArc electric trucks, Dunn said the company is “fully committed” to meeting its 150-unit order from FedEx Corp. and plans to then focus on other customers’ orders. Longer term, he added, the Shyft team will work with colleagues at Aebi Schmidt, which has its own set of electric products.