WesternOne Acquires Britco, Manufacturer and Renter of Modular Buildings

June 10, 2011
WesternOne Equity Income Fund, which does business as WesternOne Rentals and Sales, this week announced that one of its indirect subsidiaries completed the purchase of the assets and business of Britco Structures LLP and Britco Leasing Ltd., one of Canada’s largest designers and manufacturers of commercial portable and permanent modular buildings.

WesternOne Equity Income Fund, which does business as WesternOne Rentals and Sales, this week announced that one of its indirect subsidiaries completed the purchase of the assets and business of Britco Structures LLP and Britco Leasing Ltd., one of Canada’s largest designers and manufacturers of commercial portable and permanent modular buildings.

Britco operates a rental fleet of about 1,200 modular buildings in western Canada.

WesternOne acquired Britco for about CDN $93 million (about U.S. $95.5 million). The acquisition is subject to an earn-out provision whereby the former owners of Britco will receive a portion of any earnings above a prescribed threshold for the 12-month period immediately following the closing of the acquisition.

Concurrent with announcement of the acquisition, WesternOne Equity announced the completion of a debenture offering for gross proceeds of $75 million. WesternOne used the net proceeds towards the acquisition, and established a senior secured credit facility of up to $35 million with a Canadian chartered bank, a portion of which was used towards the acquisition.

WesternOne Equity Income Fund has acquired a number of companies in Canada’s western provinces. Based in Vancouver, B.C., WesternOne Rentals & Sales is No. 57 on the RER 100.