United Rentals acquires Hattiesburg’s Yak Access for over $1 billion

• Yak has grown to be a leader in the North American matting industry.

In early March, United Rentals announced that they were entering into a definitive agreement to acquire Yak Access, Yak Mat and New South Access & Environmental Solutions out of Hattiesburg from Platinum Equity for approximately $1.1 billion in cash. That acquisition was announced as completed on March 15th.

According to the company, Yak is a leader in the North American matting industry with a fleet of approximately 600,000 hardwood, softwood and composite mats providing surface protection across both construction and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) applications. Yak predominantly serves customers in the utility and midstream verticals.

United Rentals previously said it expected to use a combination of new debt financing and existing capacity under its ABL facility to fund the transaction and related expenses.

Matthew Flannery, president and CEO of United Rentals, said their acquisition of Yak further diversifies and differentiates United Rentals’ Specialty business offerings while also driving shareholder returns.

“This newly created ‘Matting Solutions’ business will create another adjacency for our company with scale in a large and growing market segment,” Flannery said in a statement. “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.”

Frank Bardonaro, CEO of Yak, said his company was excited to accelerate its business potential as part of United Rentals.

“This combination will benefit both our customers and existing employees as our established expertise in access solutions complements the broader value proposition United Rentals offers,” Bardonaro said in the joint statement with United Rentals. “I’m proud of the leading company we built and am happy we found a great partner for the next chapter.”

United Rentals touts itself as the largest equipment rental company in the world. The company says it has an integrated network of 1,504 rental locations in North America, 38 in Europe, 23 in Australia and 19 in New Zealand. In North America, the company operates in 49 states and every Canadian province.