United Rentals today announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of family-owned Ahern Rentals, Inc. for approximately US$2 billion in cash.
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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.
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 US$310 million of adjusted EBITDA on US$887 million of total revenue.
“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 Matthew Flannery, chief executive officer of United Rentals. “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.”
According to United Rentals, the acquisition will expand the fleet available to its customers by over 60,000 rental assets with an original cost of US$1.85 billion, as well as approximately US$145 million of non-rental fleet.
Notably, over 75% of Ahern Rentals’ rental fleet is comprised of high-demand aerial and material handling equipment.
Don Ahern, chief executive officer of Ahern Rentals, said, “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. 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.”
