United Rentals will acquire Yak Access and New South Access & Environmental Solutions, providers of surface-protection matting products. The deal with Platinum Equity will cost URI $1.1 billion in cash and should close this quarter.
Yak has a fleet of approximately 600,000 hardwood, softwood, and composite mats for use across both construction and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) applications. For the year ended December 31, 2023, Yak generated $171 million of adjusted EBITDA on $353 million of adjusted revenue across over 40 U.S. states, according to URI.
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The acquisition complements United Rentals’ specialty business with scale in a large and growing segment, according to URI, furthering its ability to deliver value as a one-stop-shop for customers. URI says the matting business has “significant potential to grow.”
“Our acquisition of Yak further diversifies and differentiates United Rentals’ Specialty business offerings while also driving shareholder returns,” said Matthew Flannery, president/CEO, in a statement. “This newly created ‘Matting Solutions’ business will create another adjacency for our company with scale in a large and growing market segment. In addition to its attractive profile across growth, margins and returns, this combination builds upon our Power vertical strategy, where significant investment in generation, transmission and distribution is expected over the next several decades.
“Yak meets the strategic, financial, and cultural criteria we aim for in acquisitions,” he said. “We expect this new line of business to augment our Specialty offerings as we continue to execute on our strategy of further differentiating ourselves by providing one-stop shop capabilities for our customers.”
