Emeco Holdings’ confidence in the market has led it to investing in a large package of “strategic core assets” comprising mainly 240-t haul trucks and Cat D10 (pictured)/D11 dozers, the company said in its latest financial results.

The company, in 2018, acquired Matilda Equipment for an enterprise value of A$80 million ($57 million) and has since been working hard on integrating the rental specialist into the group.

Emeco saw strong growth in the first half of its financial year to end-2018, with operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of A$102.8 million, up from A$67 million a year earlier.

The company put this down to a full contribution from Force Equipment – which Emeco also acquired recently – and Matilda Equipment, continued improvement in average operating utilisation to 64% (up from 57% a year earlier) and strength in the Eastern Region, particularly coal mining customer demand.

Emeco has paid a A$20 million deposit to secure this haul truck and dozer fleet, with the recently acquired Force Equipment workshops playing a pivotal role in getting these assets ready for work.

“Emeco currently has very high utilisation in these asset classes – demand outweighs supply,” it said, adding that rental agreements were in place for a majority of these assets prior to them arriving in Australia.

Delivery and preparation of these assets is expected to occur throughout the second half of 2019, with earnings contribution expected in its 2020 financial year, the company said.