![]() The acquired revenue won't be factored in until next year's RER 100 listing, but if G.E. 6, NationsRent, and the resulting combined company has now usurped the No. 4 - Sunbelt Rentals - bought last year's No. ![]() While consolidation, at least as far as national chains buying regional platform companies, has slowed to a trickle, consolidation among larger players is a growing factor. The rental industry's largest company, United Rentals, began the process of exploring strategic alternatives and industry observers expect a number of private equity groups to bid for the Greenwich, Conn.-based giant, or at least seriously consider it. So far in 2007, one private equity group acquired Neff Rental from another, and the seller - Odyssey Partners - almost the same week announced it had acquired the tank business from NES Rentals. (including Hertz Equipment Rental Corp.) and RSC Equipment Rental, later taking HERC public. Private equity funds bought NES Rental, Hertz Corp. The year 2006 might also be remembered as the year of private equity. And the trend is growing around the world. The percentage of construction equipment sold to rental fleets continues to spike up annually and rental increasingly is the preferred way of doing business for construction companies of all sizes. The top rental companies are growing faster than the economy as a whole, further evidence that rental penetration is growing and rental is becoming an increasing part of the fabric of the construction market. But current rental volume increases, by the top 10 as well as the 100 as a whole, are being achieved by organic, mostly same-store growth, as large rental companies improve operations and learn to run more profitably and efficiently. Looking at percentage increases such as the total 100's 59-percent growth in 1999, or the top 10 posting 55-, 36- and 56-percent jumps from 1997 through 1999, those massive leaps were fueled by acquisition as companies rolled out their platforms by acquiring revenue. While these percentages pale before the dramatic percentage improvements of the late 1990s, there is a significant difference. The top 10, meanwhile, reached $8,961 million (technically $9 billion), a 13.4-percent year-over-year leap from $7.9 billion in 2005 (see chart page 30.) The RER 100 as a whole jumped 14.5 percent year over year to $13.3 billion, on the heels of last year's 15.1-percent increase over 2005 numbers. The consensus is that the good times are not over and that 2007 will be another boom year but that the rate of growth will be more moderate. Some companies think the peak has yet to come others feel a softening already here or close at hand. It was another leap forward for the RER 100, probably the peak of a boom period.
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