Starting the year as it finished 2006, Dywidag Systems International (DSI) purchased another tunnelling products supplier in the Americas with the acquisition of Soprofint, based in Chile.
Near the end of December, DSI announced its affiliate DSI USA, Inc, had agreed to buy Fasloc, Inc, owned by private equity firm Sentinel Capital Partners. Fasloc manufactures polyester resin cartridges to secure roof support bolts under the Fasloc and Cableloc brands.
Fasloc had been with Sentinel just over a year, having been purchased from DuPont to establish as a standalone company.
In the booming mining and buoyant tunnelling sectors there has been much private equity interest and acquisition activity. DSI itself was acquired in 2005 by venture capital firm Industri Kapital, which strongly backs the expansion strategy.
The acquisitions in the Americas follow DSI’s recent purchase of American Commercial Incorporated (ACI), which specialises in ground control solutions for tunnelling and mining in North America (T&TI, December 2006, p12).
A little earlier, in September, Munich-headquartered DSI bought tunnelling support products company Alwag Tunnelausbau of Linz, Austria. The wave of acquisitions has led DSI to establish a tunnelling division based in the town.
