02.09.2022

Kiloutou enters Portugal and expands in Denmark

French international rental group Kiloutou has agreed the acquisition of Grupo Vendap in Portugal and Holbæk Lift in Denmark.

The two acquisitions would have added around €45 million in revenues over the past 12 month period. This should comfortably take Kiloutou group revenues for the next 12 months to more than €1 billion, with more than a third of it generated outside of France.

Grupo Vendap

Vendap’s current owners include a collection of investment funds, local investors and senior management team members who plan to reinvest in the business, buying into Kiloutou.

Established almost 40 years ago, Grupo Vendap is one of Portugal’s leading rental companies with revenues of €40 million and an estimated market share of 18 percent. Its product range includes aerial work platforms, All Terrain cranes up to 130 tonnes and telehandlers, as well as cabins and generators. The company employs 340 staff across eight locations spread throughout the country.

The current management team is supporting the transaction and will continue to manage the business under the leadership of chief executive Francisco Ferreira Do Amaral, who will report directly to the Kiloutou group executive board. The transaction is forecast to close later this month.

Speaking of the deal he said: ”We share with Kiloutou the same expertise and the ambition to continuously improve the services we provide to our customers. This acquisition will strengthen our ability to develop in the Portuguese market. Along with our management team, I am proud and glad about this new step forward.”

Holbæk Lift

The other acquisition - Holbæk Lift - also announced this morning is more of a ‘bolt on acquisition by Denmark’s leading rental company GSV, which Kiloutou acquired in March. (see:Kiloutou moves into Denmark). The company had revenues over the past 12 months of around €6 million with 20 employees at the single location.

Holbæk Lift & Materieludlejning, to give the business its formal name, was formed in 1981 as Holbæk Liftudlejning in the town of Holbæk in north central Zealand, due west of Copenhagen. In 1992 JP Materieludlejning was incorporated into the business and in 2006 it was reorganised into its current form. The business is owned and managed by Jens Peder Pedersen and offers a range of aerial work platforms, telehandlers and spider cranes, as well as cabins and general equipment. The transaction closed at the end of August.

GSV chief executive Dan Vorsholt said: “I am delighted and proud to announce the acquisition of Holbæk Lift by our company. Kiloutou has given GSV the financial means to pursue and accelerate its development in the very competitive Danish market. The 20 employees of Holbæk Lift will contribute to expand our network in a region where GSV wants to reinforce its presence."

Kiloutou chief executive Olivier Colleau added: “The two acquisitions are part of our geographical development strategy aiming at positioning Kiloutou among the reference leaders in all countries where the group is operating. Despite the economic uncertainties, 2022 is already a milestone year for the group with the entry in two new countries as market leaders. We are very much looking forward to working closely with the talented and experienced management team and employees of Holbæk Lift and Grupo Vendap, and I welcome them to the Kiloutou Group.”

Kiloutou was acquired by HLD and Dentressangle at the end of 2017 (See: new shareholders for Kiloutou) and is currently going through a major expansion programme. It now operates in seven European countries: France, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Portugal.

Vertikal Comment

Vendap is the second major acquisition by Kiloutou in less than six months, and the second dealer in that time that it has taken it from not being present in a market to market leadership overnight. It will also bring it closer to catching Boels which is currently Europe’s second largest equipment rental company with revenues in the region of €1.3 billion.

This move is also interesting in that it takes Kiloutou into the mobile crane rental market, something that is new for the group. It will be interesting to see how it handles this going forward. Mobile crane rental does not always mix well with smaller non operated equipment within a group setting. Aside from this today’s two acquisitions further boost the Kiloutou aerial lift and telehandler fleet.

One question that springs to mind is, whether the GSV and Grupo Vendap deals signal an appetite by Kiloutou’ s backers to go for increasingly larger transactions, in the way that United Rentals did during its campaign to ‘roll up ‘ or consolidate the US rental industry.

Watch this space.