Equipment maker to be acquired

Doosan Infracore Co., South Korea’s largest maker of construction machinery, agreed Monday to buy Ingersoll-Rand Co.’s Bobcat and other earth-moving equipment units for $4.9 billion in the country’s biggest overseas acquisition.

The combined businesses, which make small loaders, excavators and forklifts, had about $2.6 billion in sales last year, Incheon-based Doosan Infracore said.

Doosan Infracore will pay 1.9 times sales, compared with a value of 1.2 times for Caterpillar Inc., the world’s biggest maker of earth-moving machinery. Ingersoll-Rand, based in Hamilton, Bermuda, sold the units to focus on its operations that make products including Thermo King refrigerated trucks and Club Car golf carts.

“The acquisition will help Doosan Infracore become a more globalized company with a worldwide network,” said Song Jae Hak, an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul.

The purchase is the industry’s second-largest takeover behind last year’s $5.5-billion acquisition of Kion Group, a maker of forklifts, by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to Bloomberg data.

Ingersoll-Rand said in May that it was considering selling or spinning off Bobcat to exit construction-related operations and focus on its three other units: cooling, industrial and security operations.

Shares of Ingersoll-Rand jumped $3.63, or 7.5%, Monday to $51.77. They have gained 45% in the last year. Ingersoll-Rand is run out of Montvale, N.J.