The firm, which was so busy it had to turn away 20% to 30% of business, said that it was pursuing the listing to facilitate expansion and help boost inventories to meet current levels of demand.

Four-fifths of its revenue came from selling and renting tower cranes, operations director Warwick van Breda said in a telephone interview.

Tower cranes are used to build high-rise buildings, and SA French was getting a lot of business from companies constructing such buildings in and around Sandton, he stated.

SA French imports its wares from countries including Spain, Italy, France and Portugal.

The past few months have seen a flurry of construction-related firms listing on the AltX, after the building industry has been experiencing its biggest boom in about two decades.

Van Breda saiad that SA French was "definitely looking at manufacturing locally", in the long term.

It re-engineers some of the parts that it imports.

"Manufacturing the mast sections of the cranes locally would be preferable to us," said Van Breda, adding that SA French would likely look to doing this in four to five years time.

Merchant Sponsors were advising the company on its listing, he stated.

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