Scottish pumps and drilling equipment maker Weir Group has made an A$294 million (£200 million) takeover offer for Australian mining equipment maker Ludowici, topping an A$267 million rival bid from Danish engineering rival FLSmidth.

Glasgow-based Weir, which has recently gone on an acquisition spree, yesterday offered A$7.92 per Ludowici share, trumping a 23 January $7.20 a share offer from FLSmidth.

Based in Brisbane, Ludowici makes equipment for the mining industry. Its primary market is its home country, which accounts for about 65 per cent of it's A$212 million revenue, but also has a presence in South Africa, South America, India and China.

Sydney-listed Ludowici makes vibrating screens, centrifuges and other mining equipments that are used mainly in the coal-mining industry.

''The potential acquisition would extend Weir's offering in minerals processing and expand our exposure to the attractive and fast growing coal sector where Weir is relatively unrepresented,'' Weir's chief executive Keith Cochrane said.

Although FLSmidth is conducting due diligence and has priority as a buyer as long as it matches any higher offer, the Copenhagen-based company has yet not said whether it intends to make a counter-offer.
 
"We will continue our due diligence and finish it and then we will contemplate the situation," reports quoted Jesper Larsen, a spokesperson for FLSmidth, as saying.

The potential Ludowici deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions done by Weir recently.

In 2010, it acquired Malaysian mining services group Linatex, and acquired the Rs1.52-crore valves business of Karnataka-based privately-owned BDK Engineering Industries Limited.

It took a majority stake last year in a South Korean valves business, and acquired Texas-based wellhead specialist Seaboard Holdings for $675 million, in order to expand its presence in the booming North American shale gas market.

Founded in 1871, Weir, an FTSE 100 company, is a global provider of engineering solutions to the minerals, oil and gas and power sectors.

With a global network of more than 140 manufacturing facilities and service centres, its customers include the world's largest mining houses, major oil services businesses and nuclear and conventional power generation companies.

In 2010, the company reported revenues of more than £1.65 billion, of which more than half came from the services and aftermarket support. Emerging markets contributed 39 per cent of overall group revenues.