Light Tower Rentals Recapitalized by Clearlake Capital Group
Clearlake Capital Group has recapitalized Light Tower Rentals Inc. Financial terms weren’t announced. Management and other existing stakeholders participated in the deal. Light Tower Rentals, based in Odessa, Texas, is a diversified specialty equipment rental company focused on oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin area. The company was founded in 1994.
LTR also has branches in the Eagle Ford, Bakken and Marcellus shale play areas. LTR’s core equipment rental fleet includes mobile natural gas and diesel driver power generators, light towers, mobile housing units, field heaters and fluid handling products. In addition to Texas, it has branches in Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
LTR emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of a process whereby Clearlake, in partnership with Avenue Capital, led an ad-hoc bondholder committee resulting in a fully consensual pre-packaged bankruptcy plan completed in less than 40 days from filing and resulted in a 90-percen reduction of LTR’s debt. LTR was able to complete the restructuring without disruption to its employees, customers, suppliers or operations.
As LTR’s new majority stakeholder, Clearlake has substantial experience partnering with leading companies and management teams in the industrials and energy service sectors, with numerous relevant investments in that space.
“We are very proud of the entire team at LTR and we want to thank them, our customers and our suppliers for their support during this transition,” said Pat Bond, president and chief operating officer at LTR. “We’d also like to thank our new lead sponsor, Clearlake, for its support as we quickly executed our reorganization plan. This is a fresh start for LTR as we focus on building a leading specialty rental business that offers the same reliable equipment and customer-focused services that have always made us a preferred partner to our clients.”
“LTR can now leverage Clearlake’s substantial resources, experience and relationships in the energy and oilfield sectors to propel its growth strategy and take advantage of the current market environment,” said Colin Leonard, a principal with Clearlake. “We look forward to supporting LTR and its management team as the company executes a reinvigorated growth strategy, including through potential acquisitions.”
Clearlake Capital Group is a private investment firm founded in 2006, with more than $3 billion of assets under management. New York-based Avenue Capital Group has more than $11 billion of assets.
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.