United Rentals Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of family-owned Ahern Rentals Inc. for approximately $2 billion in cash, according to Business Wire.

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 Sept. 30, 2022, Ahern Rentals generated $310 million of adjusted EBITDA on $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," said Matthew Flannery, CEO of United Rentals. "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.

"Our integration playbook is under way 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," he added. "I look forward to welcoming our new team members upon the closing of the acquisition."

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."

United Rentals, Inc. is the largest equipment rental company in the world. The company has an integrated network of 1,343 rental locations in North America, 13 in Europe, 27 in Australia and 19 in New Zealand. In North America, the company operates in 49 states and every Canadian province. The company's approximately 22,100 employees serve construction and industrial customers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners and others. The company offers approximately 4,500 classes of equipment for rent with a total original cost of $17.43 billion.

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