Sunbelt Rentals Enters Eastern Canada with Acquisition of CRS

Sunbelt Rentals has entered into a unit purchase agreement to acquire Contractors Rental Supply for CDN $275 million plus a potential earn-out.
July 19, 2017

Sunbelt Rentals has entered into a unit purchase agreement to acquire Contractors Rental Supply for CDN $275 million plus a potential earn-out. CRS is Sunbelt’s first acquisition in Eastern Canada and will become Sunbelt’s operational platform in Ontario. The proposed transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks after customary regulatory approvals.

 “We are very pleased to be partnering with Ashtead and Sunbelt,” said Steve Fay, chairman of CRS. “Their culture, values and total focus on their people and customers is exceptional, and perfectly aligned with CRS. The CRS partnership with Clairvest Group, which began in 2013, has been very successful and we look forward to continuing to provide our customers with industry-leading equipment and service as part of the Ashtead team.”

CRS was founded in 2000 by a group of industry veterans. The company has grown significantly and now employs more than 400 people and has 28 locations in the province of Ontario.

Catalyst Strategic Advisors LLC is acting as the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to CRS and its board of directors in this transaction.

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.

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