YAK ACCESS acquired by UNITED RENTALS

United Rentals agreed on 4 March 2024 to acquire Yak, comprising Yak Access, Yak Mat and New South Access & Environmental Solutions, from Platinum Equity at an enterprise value of $1.1B in cash. Yak generated revenue of and an adjusted EBITDA of in 2023, an EBITDA margin of , giving an EV/EBITDA multiple of , or 5.2 times once tax benefits and cost synergies are taken into account. The purchase price included $166 million in net present value of acquired tax assets, and the structure allowed for up to $50 million of additional consideration to the seller, based on revenue achieved in the first two years after closing. Completion was expected in the first quarter of 2024, subject to limited contractual conditions. At the time of the deal, Yak operated a fleet of around 600,000 mats across more than 40 states, serving mainly utility and midstream customers. United Rentals planned to run it as a new Matting Solutions business within its Specialty segment, a line it did not previously offer, and saw scope to cross-sell matting to its existing customers in construction and maintenance work while supporting its power vertical, where investment in generation, transmission and distribution was expected over the coming decades. Chief executive Matthew Flannery presented the deal as a further step in building a one-stop shop for customers. United Rentals expected $7 million of annualised cost synergies by the end of the second year after closing, from operational efficiencies and overhead savings, and the acquisition to add immediately to earnings per share and free cash flow. It planned to fund the purchase with new debt and existing capacity under its asset-based lending facility, taking pro-forma leverage to about 1.7 times at closing, within its target range of 1.5 to 2.5 times. Platinum Equity had owned Yak for six years. Sullivan & Cromwell acted as legal adviser to United Rentals.

It is worth noting that the fund Platinum Equity took control of Yak Access through an LBO in 2018.