It was on the eve of the last ConExpo that it was announced that Raimondi Cranes had been acquired by KBW Investments, a company founded and chaired by the California-born Saudi prince HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal. The acquisition of the Italian crane maker came at a turbulent period for the Italian construction equipment and automotive industries as it was seemingly being picked off by a series of circling investors. “Raimondi Cranes was officially launched as a ‘direct’ entity in the MENA region after the KBW Investments acquisition,” explains Technical Director, Eng. Domenico Ciano of the Legnano, Milan-based company. “That being said, Raimondi products, especially our range of tower cranes, were already at work in the region long before the acquisition. The main change post-acquisition was that Raimondi’s Middle East main headquarters in Dubai functions as a client-direct office, not in an agent or third party capacity. Dealing with Raimondi in the Middle East is the same as dealing directly with Raimondi’s global headquarters in Italy.”

The company went through some significant shifts, and during that period we weren’t attending to the US and Canada the way we probably should have,” he explains. “Now that we’ve gained so much ground in Europe and the Middle East, it’s time to re-engage North America. He adds that the past two years in the Australian market have also been been truly “phenomenal” with its two agents there clearing benchmark after benchmark.

KBW has been highly involved on some hugely prestigious projects in the Middle East while it has continued to strengthen the construction arm of its portfolio, including acquiring a 50% stake in Arcadia Engineering. Its Saudi Prince owner considers Raimondi as a jewel in the portfolio and in turn his Italian crane maker is able to move onto projects it may have otherwise missed out on.

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