Toro Company to Acquire Parent Company of Ditch Witch

The Toro Company last week announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire The Charles Machine Works, Inc., the privately held parent company of Ditch Witch and other brands in the underground construction market, for $700 million in cash. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions. It is expected to be complete by the end of Toro’s third quarter.

Charles Machine Works, which is headquartered in Perry, Okla., designs, manufactures and sells a range of products to cover the full life-cycle of underground pipe and cable, including horizontal directional drills, walk and ride trenchers, utility loaders, vacuum excavators, asset locators, pipe rehabilitation solutions and after-market tools.

Richard M. Olson, Toro’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the acquisition “expands our business in a meaningful way in an adjacent category we know well through our own specialty construction business and in a market that is attractive given the potential for growth in addressing both aging infrastructure that is currently in place and new infrastructure that will be needed to support next generation technologies like 5G.”

Source: Business Wire