Agco wants CNH

FRANKFURT Oct 18 (Reuters) - U.S. farm equipment maker Agco Corp reiterated its interest in buying Italian group Fiat Industrial's CNH Global unit, German daily Handelsblatt reported.

"I would like to buy Case New Holland from Fiat," Chief Executive Martin Richenhagen was quoted as saying in an interview published in the paper's Tuesday edition. "But so far I could not persuade (Fiat CEO) Sergio Marchionne to sell."

In December, Agco's CEO said he had talked to Marchionne about buying CNH but failed to persuade the Italian executive to sell out.

In July, he told Reuters he was convinced that any takeover of CNH was "not doable".

Fiat Industrial owns 89 percent of CNH, the owner of the Case and New Holland brands of farm and earthmoving equipment.

Agco, whose brands also include Massey Ferguson, is investing in two factories in China and sees Africa as a growth region in the medium term, Richenhagen said.

Agco's chief said he believed 2011 would be the farm equipment maker's best ever year with 9 percent growth compared with 2010. Agco will likely surpass the $10 billion threshold for sales, Richenhagen said.

I hope that doesn't happen! AGCO already screwed over the Allis people....case people would be next!

tmiller wrote: At least there will be new factories in china, they seem to produce high quality stuff!

Don't you know all the highest quality bestest stuff comes from China????

   We'll I guess the IH guys wouldn't have to worry about loosing red tractors. LoL.

Theres no way this could happen - way too big together

And the dealers would only be 400 miles apart.JP

At the risk of throwing a little common sense water on the fire of the Agco haters!

 I think KC got it right.

Russ SCPA wrote: On a serious side here, there is no way I can see any of the regulators permitting another major ag equipment manufacturers merger(buyout), at some point where would anti-trust monopoly laws kick in? CASEIH was forced to divest their 50% of Hesston prior to the NH deal,   whether or not AGCO can handle to money seems to me as a mute point.

This kind of deals and/or thinkings that been coming from Riconwhatever  is kind of like take all the markets he can and then screw the farmers more to make his company richer, and doesn't care how it costs who or what will happen to old equipment owners... total disregard for people the way it looks to me. besides if you get rid of the competition, ... Like I said, I don't care for the way he thinks, it totally stinks...

this would finally put Ford and Ferguson together again! LOL!

I will tell ya why I dont think the new steigers arenot as good as the Versatile counterpart. Originally steigers were grossly over built with construction, off highway and some highway components, if you had a problem with a steiger/versatile tractor one part could easily be fixed with out messing with the rest of the tractor. Steiger and Versatile built there reputation on that fact and it proved to be "the" way of building big 4wd tractors, all the others Deere, Case, Allis, Massey, IH (with the exception of the 43-45-47 series) were all 2wd tractors bolted together to make a 4wd. When Steiger went from green (which I have) to the red ones ,CaseIH, already began the destruction of the steiger by buying cheaper lighter axles and trannys, they took iron out of the frame and sold it back to you in weights, than the new STX came along which is a magnum made into the 4wd same as Deere, its cheaper to build it around parts they already have, so thats what you have now is a red John Deere 2wd tractor tweaked into a 4wd, being sold on the solid reputation that built the steiger name. Versatile on the other hand remains the only true 4wd builder by staying with the tried and true, component build with HEAVY off road components, bolted into the frame, so service and replacement is better, as is the off road life span. The STX line is good, but the true 4WD build of the Versatile will prove to be the best in years to come. A true Steiger man doesnt even refer to anything built after the green ones as a Steiger, they believe the line ended when they started to lighten them up, the "steiger" name is purely marketing now, which I give the Russians credit with the Versatile, they knew what that name and reputation still stood for.

GOTA love capitolism   !!!!

I was thinking about this all today while baling hay.  I think most of the points made cover my thoughts.  I think ole Marty just wants to have the biggest farm equipment company in the world.  Buying CNH isn't logical, as many have already pointed out.  If AGCO had kept the orange (and supported it) they would probably have a much bigger market share in NA.  Of course, they would need to support their dealers and get more dealerships in areas not well represented by AGCO products.  With the cost of manufacturing and raw materials going higher, no matter where they are built, it will be more important to have larger volumes of machines.  Seems like if they had several brands with pretty much the same basic model, a farmer could buy whatever comfort and advancement level they want.  They could be Red, Orange, Yellow, Silver or even Green.  Kind of like Chevy/ GMC trucks.  I believe they are both built on the same line, just with different equipment and decals.  I don't think Marty will ever get it, as long as the stock keeps going up, the board will keep worshiping the CEO and figure he can do no wrong.  Time will tell what will happen in the next few years.

Kcgrain wrote: I will tell ya why I dont think the new steigers arenot as good as the Versatile counterpart. Originally steigers were grossly over built with construction, off highway and some highway components, if you had a problem with a steiger/versatile tractor one part could easily be fixed with out messing with the rest of the tractor. Steiger and Versatile built there reputation on that fact and it proved to be "the" way of building big 4wd tractors, all the others Deere, Case, Allis, Massey, IH (with the exception of the 43-45-47 series) were all 2wd tractors bolted together to make a 4wd. When Steiger went from green (which I have) to the red ones ,CaseIH, already began the destruction of the steiger by buying cheaper lighter axles and trannys, they took iron out of the frame and sold it back to you in weights, than the new STX came along which is a magnum made into the 4wd same as Deere, its cheaper to build it around parts they already have, so thats what you have now is a red John Deere 2wd tractor tweaked into a 4wd, being sold on the solid reputation that built the steiger name. Versatile on the other hand remains the only true 4wd builder by staying with the tried and true, component build with HEAVY off road components, bolted into the frame, so service and replacement is better, as is the off road life span. The STX line is good, but the true 4WD build of the Versatile will prove to be the best in years to come. A true Steiger man doesnt even refer to anything built after the green ones as a Steiger, they believe the line ended when they started to lighten them up, the "steiger" name is purely marketing now, which I give the Russians credit with the Versatile, they knew what that name and reputation still stood for.