Sumitomo Corp. Acquires Remaining 20 Percent of Sunstate Equipment Rental Shares

March 2, 2017

2 min read

Sunstate Equipment Rentals39 Reno Nev branch — Sunstate Equipment Rentals' Reno, Nev., branch.

Sumitomo Corp. announced that is has acquired the remaining 20-percent interest in Sunstate Equipment Co. through its subsidiary SMS International Corp., making Sunstate a wholly owned company of Sumitomo Corporation Group. Sunstate Equipment is No. 7 on the RER 100 and is ranked the 24^th largest equipment rental company in the world according to International Rental News.

Sunstate Equipment Co. was founded in 1977 by Mike Watts, who recently retired. Watts’ son Chris Watts is now CEO of the Phoenix-based firm, which now has branches in California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee in addition to Arizona.

Sumitomo expects continued growth for the equipment rental industry because of deteriorating infrastructure systems in the United States. Sumitomo became involved with Sunstate in 2009 with its first investment in its Convertible Preferred Interests. As a minority shareholder, Sumitomo was focused on strengthening a partnership with Sunstate’s management while gaining an understanding of the equipment rental industry. This led to Sumitomo acquiring the controlling interest in Sunstate in 2012 by increasing its ownership of Common Membership Interest to 80 percent. Following the acquisition, Sunstate expanded its business and tripled sales from 2009, Sumitomo said.

Sumitomo Corporation of Americas was established in 1952 and headquartered in New York City. It has eight offices in major U.S. cities.

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.