Herc Rentals Agrees to Acquire Toronto’s Rapid Equipment Rental
Herc Holdings, operating as Herc Rentals Inc., announced this week that it has entered a purchase agreement to acquire Toronto-based Rapid Equipment Rental Limited (Rapid Equipment). The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions with a plan to close in the fourth quarter of 2021. Terms were not disclosed.
Rapid Equipment, a full-service general equipment rental company founded in 2013, comprises approximately 110 employees and seven locations serving construction and industrial customers throughout the Greater Toronto Area — one of the largest equipment rental markets in North America.
“I look forward to welcoming Rapid Equipment to Team Herc,” said Larry Silber, Herc Rentals president and CEO. “Led by equipment rental veterans with substantial industry experience, Rapid Equipment has established a strong reputation throughout the GTA for exceptional customer service, top-quality equipment and operational excellence. Our combined teams and resources position Herc Rentals to be a preeminent equipment rental partner across the GTA.
“The addition of Rapid Equipment supports our long-term strategy to achieve greater density and scale in select urban markets across North America to better serve both our local and multi-geography customers. In particular, the GTA represents a strong growth opportunity with a potential market size exceeding $1 billion in equipment rental revenue. We expect the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in the first year. We remain well positioned to pursue growth through acquired operations, greenfield branches and investment in key fleet categories as we continue to seek improved scale, profitability and shareholder returns.”
Herc has been active on the acquisition front this year, with the acquisition of Champion Rentals and CBS Rentals in Texas, and Dwight Crane and now Rapid Equipment Rental in the Toronto area. Headquartered in Bonita Springs, Fla., Herc Rentals is No. 3 on the RER 100.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.