April 9, 2019 - Capitol Investment Corp. announced it is buying Nesco, a provider of specialty rental equipment to the electric utility, telecom, and rail end-markets.
Nesco offers a nationwide rental fleet of approximately 4,000 units to a diverse customer base for the maintenance, repair, upgrade, and installation of critical infrastructure assets including electric lines, telecommunications networks, and rail systems. Nesco also offers service, parts, tools, and accessories needed to fully equip crews for activity in the field.
“Nesco perfectly fits our model, as it is uniquely positioned to benefit from the increased demand for its equipment as the result of the significant, consistent growth in infrastructure spending in each of its core end-markets – electric utility transmission and distribution, 5G deployment, and rail development,” said Mark Ein, chairman and CEO of Capitol.
“We are thrilled about our new partnership with Capitol,” said Nesco’s CEO Lee Jacobson. “This transaction enables us to invest in our fleet to fulfill the increased demand that we have been unable to serve in recent years and that we expect to only increase as the result of the continued investment in our end-markets, all of which will drive significant and sustained growth for our business.”
Joining the combined company’s board of directors as chairman is William Plummer who served as the CFO of United Rentals Inc. from 2008 until he left the company in January 2019. Jeffrey Stoops will also join the combined company’s board of directors. Stoops served as the CEO of SBA Communications Corp. for the last 17 years, overseeing transformational growth of the wireless tower infrastructure company.
Nesco’s current management team, led by CEO Lee Jacobson and CFO Bruce Heinemann, will continue to run the combined company post-transaction.
According to Capitol, the electric utility market, which has an annual infrastructure spend of over $60 billion, is in the early years of an upcycle, driven by utilities’ investment to replace or strengthen an aging electric grid, and the growing gas and renewable generation mandated by regulation.
Also, Capitol says the 5G upgrade cycle is driving a new wave of telecom infrastructure spending by the “Big Four” wireless providers expected to total $240 billion over the next decade as deployment is expected to add 20 times more cells than the existing macro structure.
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