Investment Firm Oaktree Acquires Trench Plate Rental
Trench Plate Rental, a supplier of trench safety and traffic control solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by funds managed by the Power Opportunities Group of Oaktree Capital Management. TPR’s existing management team will continue to serve in the same capacity and has partnered with Oaktree to further expand the company’s product and service offering and geographic footprint. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 1978, TPR, based in Downey, Calif., provides trench plates, boxes, shoring equipment, traffic control message boards and barriers to utilities and contractors engaged in maintaining, upgrading and replacing aging infrastructure.
Trench Plate Rental has 22 branch locations.
“We are excited to begin our partnership with Oaktree,” said Graeme Gilfillan, president and CEO of Trench Plate Rental. “With the addition of Oaktree’s strategic resources, industry relationships and capital, TPR will be well-positioned to continue improving the quality of its products and services for the benefit of both existing and new customers.”
“TPR has earned an outstanding reputation in the trench shoring industry, holding the safety of its customers’ workers as its highest priority,” said Michael Cardito, managing director and co-portfolio manager of Oaktree’s Power Opportunities Group. “We are excited to partner with Graeme and the TPR team to help the company grow both organically and via targeted acquisitions.”
In addition to the rental of trench safety equipment, TPR owns Quik-Shor Manufacturing, which manufactures several trench-shoring products.
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.