Skip to main content

Kapsch TrafficCom to acquire Mark IV IVHS

Kapsch TrafficCom AG has agreed to acquire, through subsidiaries, the businesses of Mark IV IVHS, part of Mark IV, LLC (US), in the United States, in Canada and in Mexico
March 1, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
81 Kapsch TrafficCom AG has agreed to acquire, through subsidiaries, the businesses of Mark IV IVHS, part of Mark IV, LLC (US), in the United States, in Canada and in Mexico, for a purchase price of US$70 million, subject to certain closing conditions and subject to certain potential price adjustments based on working capital included with the business. The transaction is structured as a stock purchase of the holding companies which own the Mark IV IVHS business and closing is targeted for 30 November 2010.

Mark IV IVHS is a designer and manufacturer of dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) devices that are widely used by highway, toll, turnpike, tunnel, and bridge authorities to enable intelligent transportation systems (ITS) such as electronic toll collection (ETC) and automated weigh station bypass. With more than 21.8 million transponders on-the-road and more than 3,700 lanes equipped, Mark IV IVHS is the largest supplier of ETC equipment in North America. The company has enabled many landmark ITS deployments, including: the world’s first non-stop, all-electronic toll road (Highway 407 ETR, Canada); interoperability between truck electronic preclearance systems and toll collection (PrePass); and, the E-ZPass system of the 24 toll authorities in 14 states who comprise the E-ZPass Group in the Northeastern United States. EZPass is a regional ETC system that can be used throughout the Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States. Mark IV also recently announced a contract award in Mexico.

With 142 employees, Mark IV IVHS generated in its last fiscal year 2009/2010, ended February 28, 2010, net sales of approximately US$50 million at a clear positive free cash flow and at an EBITDA margin accretive to the EBITDA margin of Kapsch TrafficCom Group generated in its last fiscal year 2009/2010, ended 31 March, 2010.

With approximately 240 references in 39 countries on all five continents, and with more than 18 million transponders (on-board units - OBUs) delivered, and nearly 13,000 lanes equipped, Kapsch TrafficCom, which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, has positioned itself among the leading suppliers of ETC systems worldwide and has subsidiaries and representatives offices in 25 countries. In addition to ETC systems, particularly multi-lane free-flow deployments, Kapsch also supplies traffic management systems, with a focus on road safety and traffic control, and electronic access systems and parking management.

Related Content

  • Success of Slovakia’s ETC system
    July 16, 2015
    Slovakia’s complex electronic toll collection (ETC) system has seen steady growth since it opened in 2010; toll collection in 2013 totalled US$161 million, while in 2014 US$200 million of told were collected. The first quarter of 2015 saw a total of US14.4 million of tolls collected. At the end of March 2015, 245,408 on-board units (OBUs) were registered with the system; 72 per cent of OBUs are registered to foreign drivers. Designed, developed and operated by Skytoll on behalf of the National Motorwa
  • South Africa's first multi-lane free-flow tolling top of the line
    February 3, 2012
    Kapsch's Kjell Arnesson talks about the first multi-lane free-flow tolling project in South Africa. In South Africa, installation is ongoing as part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) of the country's first Multi-Lane Free-Flow (MLFF) tolling system.
  • Growth of China ETC market
    January 22, 2016
    According to the latest report from Research and Markets, by the end of 2014, the mileage of toll highways in China amounted to 162,600 km, including 106,700 km of toll expressways, accounting for 65.7per cent; there were 1,665 mainline toll stations on toll highways nationwide, 696.5 of which were the ones on expressways, making up 41.8 per cent. The report, China ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) Industry Report, 2015-2019, claims that by the end of Oct 2015, China had had 25.15 million electronic toll col
  • EETS: still struggling to become reality
    December 4, 2013
    Erich Erker, Norbert Schindler, Peter Tschulik from Siemens Electronic Tolling examine the barriers to EETS deployment. Tolling in Europe was introduced to pay for the construction and operation of individual tunnels, bridges and highways and has evolved in major steps. The original manual tolling systems were highly disruptive to traffic flow and required the creation of large toll plazas, with multiple lanes and toll booths to ensure an acceptable throughput. With the introduction of Dedicated Short Range