Ahern Rentals has filed for an extension to present its plan of reorganization, NASDAQ.com has reported. Ahern Rentals is seeking until Aug. 20 to file a plan and until Oct. 19 to poll its creditors on the plan, without the threat of rival proposals such as from Platinum Equity, which, Businessweek.com is reporting, hopes to gain control of the company.
In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Ahern Rentals said it has not had enough time to make the necessary evaluations to file a plan. The original deadline for the presentation of the plan is in April, and its approval from creditors in June.
Ahern officials have also pointed out improvement in the equipment rental industry and the company’s business fortunes. Ahern’s revenues increased nearly 14 percent in 2011, while its rental volume jumped more than 20 percent.
Ahern Rentals, which ran into trouble when the housing market collapsed and massive construction projects in Las Vegas were completed, owes more than $600 million in second-lien notes, a revolving credit line and a term loan.
Platinum Equity, led by billionaire Tom Gores, hopes to gain control of Ahern Rentals. Platinum, which owes a portion of Ahern’s debt, also owns crane rental giant Maxim Crane as well as NESCO, an Indiana-based rental company that primarily serves the electrical transmission and distribution market, with 32 U.S. branches.
Gores founded Platinum Equity in 1995. Its principal Louis Sampson, who led the acquisition of Maxim Crane in 2008, told RER in an exclusive interview the following year that Platinum’s ambitions are to be a consolidator, saying “There is no limit to our appetite.”
Based in Las Vegas, Ahern Rentals is No. 7 on the RER 100, making it the seventh-largest company in the equipment rental industry. Maxim Crane is No. 8.
