Cahill Services, a specialty rental services business and a portfolio company of Pine Brook Partners, has acquired Drive Rental Corp., a heating rental business with operations in Canada and the US.
Drive Rental’s flameless heating products provide high levels of heat and airflow and are self-contained, portable, and do not require any electrical power. The company’s products are used in cold-weather climates, ranging from northern Alberta to the north slope of Alaska, for temporary site heating; equipment startup; heating blowout preventers and wellheads; frost prevention; concrete curing; new building construction; pipeline heating and drying; among others. Drive Rental has approximately 100 customers. The company was founded in May 2012 by Adrian Lachance and Lance Wolgemuth and is headquartered in Alberta (www.driverentalcorp.com).
This is the first acquisition by Cahill Services since it was formed in 2015 by Pine Brook Partners and a group of former executive of Aggreko – a large supplier of temporary power generation equipment and temperature control equipment headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland. Cahill is led by George Walker, Chief Executive Officer, who previously spent 27 years working for Aggreko most recently serving as President of the North America region and Executive Director of the Aggreko Board.
“Drive Rental is a very exciting specialty rental business that has already proven to be a market winner in a very short time,” said Mr. Walker. “In addition to great technology and products, the company’s attention to customer service was very attractive to us as every heating application has its own unique challenges and projects in very remote areas simply must perform.”
Pine Brook has more than $5 billion of assets under management and invests primarily in energy and financial services businesses. In February 2014, Pine Brook announced the final closing of its second fund, Pine Brook Capital Partners II, LP, with total capital commitments of $2.4 billion. The firm was founded in 2006 and has offices in New York and Houston (www.pinebrookpartners.com).
With the closing of the transaction, Drive Rental has been rebranded as Cahill Heating. “We are very excited to be joining Cahill and entering the next phase of our company’s evolution,” said Mr. Wolgemuth, a co-founder of Drive Rental who will continue with the business as President of Cahill Heating. “The Cahill team’s over 100 years of experience in the specialty rental business will prove invaluable as we continue the company’s growth trajectory.”
Cahill Services is headquartered in Houston (www.cahillservices.com).
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 6-7-16
