H&E Equipment Services to Acquire Contractors Equipment Center in Colorado

H&E Equipment Services has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Contractors Equipment Center, a non-residential construction-focused equipment rental company located in the greater Denver area. Under the terms of the agreement, H&E is expected to pay approximately $122.4 million in cash for CEC.

Michael Roth

Nov. 21, 2017

2 min read

HampE Equipment Services39 Albuquerque NM branch — H&E Equipment Services' Albuquerque, N.M., branch.

The transaction is expected to close in the late fourth quarter of this year and is subject to customary closing conditions including Hart-Scott-Rodino Act clearance.

“From every perspective, we believe CEC meets the strict criteria we demand for every acquisition,” said John Engquist, H&E’s CEO. “CEC is a long-term proven operator that has delivered solid operational and financial resuls and possesses a highly experienced management team and employee base, which also shares our culture for best-in-class commitment to customer service and safety. As of September 30, 2017, CEC generated revenues of approximately $34 million for the last 12 months and its fleet size based on original equipment cost was $84 million. With the addition of CEC, we will double our branch count to six in Colorado, significantly expanding our presence in a high-growth construction market.

“CEC’s end-user markets and fleet mix are also highly complementary to our existing business. We welcome CEC’s employees to the H&E family. We are actively evaluating acquisitions similar to CEC that align with our growth strategy and expand our operations.”

“This acquisition is a significant complement to everyone at CEC and validates our hard work and success in the construction markets we serve in Colorado,” said Greg Harrington, president of CEC. “By joining H&E, we become part of an industry-leading integrated equipment services company with the scale to better serve our existing customers and further expand our presence in the vibrant Denver and surrounding markets. We believe our employees will also benefit from broader further career advancement opportunities.”

Dechert LLP acted as legal advisor to H&E. Catalyst Strategic Advisors -- http://www.catalyststrategicadvisors.com – acted as exclusive financial advisor to CEC, and Holland & Hart LLP acted as exclusive legal advisor to CEC.

H&E Equipment Services is based in Baton Rouge, La. No. 9 on the RER 100, H&E has 80 branches throughout the West Coast, Intermountain, Southwest, Gulf Coast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast Regions. Contractors Equipment Center, headquartered in Commerce City, Colo., is No. 77.

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.