United Rentals, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of family-owned Ahern Rentals, Inc. for approximately $2 billion in cash.
The board of directors of United Rentals unanimously approved the agreement. The transaction is expected to close prior to year-end 2022, subject to customary conditions.
“Our integration playbook is underway so we can prepare the acquired branches to take full advantage of our systems and operational capabilities, and gain from our employee and customer-centric culture. I look forward to welcoming our new team members upon the closing of the acquisition,” said Matthew Flannery, chief executive officer of United Rentals.
Founded in 1953, Ahern Rentals is the eighth largest equipment rental company in North America, with approximately 2,100 employees and 106 locations in 30 states serving approximately 44,000 customers in the construction and industrial sectors. For the trailing 12 months ended September 30, 2022, Ahern Rentals generated $310 million of adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) on $887 million of total revenue.
“I’m proud of what we’ve built at Ahern Rentals over nearly seven decades, and I’m extremely pleased that the combination with United Rentals will take the business forward in this next chapter of growth,” said Don Ahern, chief executive officer of Ahern Rentals.
Ahern continued, “I want to thank our employees for driving the results that make this transaction possible. This is a strong outcome for both organizations and our customers.”
Strong Strategic Rationale
Consistent with United Rentals’ “grow the core” strategy, customers of both companies will be better served by the combined scale, and legacy customers of Ahern Rentals will benefit from one-stop access to United Rentals’ specialty rental offerings.
Ahern Rentals’ customer service footprint of branches, fleet and experienced employees is complementary with United Rentals’ existing network. The combination will increase capacity for United Rentals in key geographies, with concentrations on both U.S. coasts and in the Gulf region.
The combination will expand the fleet available to United Rentals customers by over 60,000 rental assets with an original cost of $1.85 billion, as well as approximately $145 million of non-rental fleet. Notably, over 75% of Ahern Rentals’ rental fleet is comprised of high-demand aerial and material handling equipment.
The integration of the acquired branch and sales operations represents significant opportunities to improve efficiency, productivity, and new business development with the adoption of United Rentals technology and field management processes.
“Our acquisition of Ahern Rentals supports our strategy to deploy capital to grow the core business and drive shareholder value. We view ourselves as the ideal owner of these assets within our network, as customers will benefit from the combination of the two organizations moving forward together. We’re leveraging our competencies in larger-scale M&A to augment both our near- and long-term earnings power,” said Flannery.
Ahern Rentals and United Rentals use a number of the same technology platforms, including the RentalMan ERP system.
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