Rental equipment firm, Speedy Hire, has this week announced details of a major acquisition. Buying cherry picker firm, Prolift Access Limited and Platform Sales & Hire Limited (PSHL), the business reportedly valued the acquisition at £13m.
Based in South west England, the cherry-picking business boasts an impressive fleet of 770. It also employs over 70 people in various roles. With Speedy Hire’s profits well ahead of last year; the business could afford to plash out on the deal. The firm will be parting with £5.9m in cash and acquiring the business’ debt. Debt of the business currently sits at £5.5m.
“These acquisitions strengthen our powered access offering and allow us to better serve our customers through the core fleet,” said chief executive Russell Down.
“I warmly welcome both Prolift Access and Platform Sales & Hire employees to Speedy.”
Following this announcement, shares in Speedy understandably creeped up. |According to reports investors saw an attractive 0.45% increase to 56p.
Broker, Liberum, were quick to pass comment of the acquisition. They felt the purchase to be a great for to the business’ current portfolio.
“It should also enable Speedy to bring in house some of its existing rehire revenues at higher margins, as well as providing the business with a platform to grow its powered access offering going forward,” said Liberum analyst Rahim Karim.
“From a financial perspective the deal also looks attractive with both businesses being bought at close to book value and an implied EV/EBITDA multiple of 4.4x.”
“Beyond this headline valuation we would expect that company to be able to drive both revenue and cost synergies over time, highlighting the accretive nature of the deals.”
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