Caterpillar to Buy Mining Equipment Firm for $8 Billion

Heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. said Monday it will buy a mining equipment company in a deal valued at more than $8 billion.

Caterpillar will buy Bucyrus International for $7.6 billion to add shovels, draglines and drills to its product range, and the deal is valued at $8.6 billion including net debt, Bloomberg reported.

Bucyrus shareholders will receive $92 a share — a 32% premium to the Milwaukee-based company’s Friday share price of $69.62 per share, Bloomberg said.

The deal is the largest in the construction and mining machinery industry in the past five years, Bloomberg reported.

Caterpillar, which formerly made diesel truck engines, said in 2008 it was pulling out of the North American Class 8 truck engine market except for a truck and engine in partnership with Navistar International Corp.