BLUELINE RENTAL acquired by UNITED RENTALS

United Rentals agreed on 10 September 2018 to acquire BlueLine Rental from Platinum Equity for an enterprise value of $2.1B in cash, buying Vander Holding Corporation and its subsidiaries. The board of United Rentals approved the agreement unanimously, and completion was expected in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance. BlueLine generated revenue of and an adjusted EBITDA of in the twelve months to 31 August 2018, an EBITDA margin of , giving an EV/EBITDA multiple of , or 5.4 times once cost synergies and the net present value of tax attributes, estimated at $169 million, are included. At the time it served more than 50,000 customers from 114 locations in 25 US states, Canada and Puerto Rico, with over 1,700 employees and a fleet of more than 46,000 rental assets with an original cost of around $1.5 billion. The purchase added capacity in many of the largest metropolitan areas of North America, including both US coasts, the Gulf South and Ontario, and brought in a customer base weighted towards mid-sized and local accounts, to which United Rentals could cross-sell its specialty solutions. Both companies already used several of the same systems, including RentalMan for field operations, which United Rentals expected to ease the integration. It targeted around $45 million of cost synergies in corporate overhead, operations and third-party re-rent, plus roughly $15 million of procurement savings, and expected the deal to add immediately to adjusted earnings per share and free cash flow.

By taking control of Blueline Rental, United Rentals continues its expansion strategy. Previously, the group had completed 2 acquisitions, including Bakercorp in 2018.