Buhler Industries Inc, the Winnipeg-based manufacturer of farm machinery is being firmly taken under the wing of ASKO, the Turkey-based subsidiary of ASKO Holdings, which already owns Basak Traktor.

The Canadian company purchased Versatile tractors from the Russian Rostselmash machinery company right at the end of 2023, and it is now being amalgamated with its parent, which already holds 97% of Buhler's shares.

The share of the company was acquired in late 2023 along with all of Buhler's debt, but the company was kept as a separate entity and listed on the Canadian stock exchange as such.

Under the deal, the Buhler name will be dropped and a new company called Amalco will emerge, which will be wholly-owned by ASKO Holdings.

Although the deal is rather involved, the net effect is to pass the management of the old Buhler company directly to the ASKO board, which will then have total control of its activities.

The rationale behind the move is said to be to enable significant investments to be made over the next few years. Both the Versatile and Farm King factories are in need of modernisation, and the ASKO parent wants to be able to do so unhindered.

ASKO do not plan to reorganise or change the dealer network, although it may be worth noting that it is already the Turkish importer and distributor for Claas.

Buhler has a corporate history punctuated by moments of controversy, with unions winning a CDN$6m lawsuit following an industrial dispute in 2000, while Russian board directors attracted criticism in 2014.

It's share performance has been less than impressive, falling from a high of CDN$7.58 in 2004 to CDN$1.71 in 2022.

This latest development puts all this behind, as its new management structure takes advantage of a clean sheet as far as branding goes, and it is now able to integrate the inherited factories into the larger company's production base.