06.03.2008

Essex Crane acquired

Chicago based crawler crane rental company, Essex Crane Rental which claims to operate the largest specialised crawler crane rental fleet in North America has been acquired by Hyde Park Acquisition Corp.

Hyde Park is based in New York and was set up in 2006 with the specific intention to raise funds in order to make an acquisition within the infrastructure or logistics area. It is managed by Laurence and Edward Levy.

Hyde Park is paying $210 million for Essex crane, which is owned by private equity firm Kirtland Capital Partners.

The transaction will be financed through a combination of up to $100 million from Hyde Park, a $5 million equity investment by the Essex management team, a $5 million equity investment by Kirtland Capital Partners with the company borrowing up to a $117 million asset-backed credit facility from a consortium of institutional lending sources.

Essex Crane, which has been in business for 48 years, has a fleet of around 400 large crawler cranes and revenues of $64.2 million and Earnings Before Tax and Interest and Depreciation of $37.2 million.

The management team at Essex is expected to remain unchanged following the transaction. Ron Schad will continue in his role as chief executive officer

When the deal closes, most likely in the second half of 2008, Hyde Park will change its name to Essex Crane Rental Corp. and will seek a Nasdaq stock market listing.

Schad said: “We at Essex look forward to partnering with Hyde Park and believe that we will benefit greatly from their experience in leading infrastructure and related companies. Essex’s market position has improved dramatically under Kirtland Capital’s ownership. We have invested heavily in our fleet, our people and our processes to improve the quality of the cranes and services we provide to our customers.”

“Our focus on providing cranes to our customers that complete their projects on schedule and on budget has proven incredibly valuable to North America’s leading infrastructure contractors. I am excited by our shared vision with Hyde Park to continue the aggressive investment in our fleet and our people.”

Laurence S. Levy, chairman and chief executive of Hyde Park, said: “Hyde Park was funded with the intention of acquiring an asset with strong ties to the infrastructure market. Essex is intimately linked to key infrastructure end-markets, such as transportation, utilities and energy, and I am excited about the opportunities offered by this investment.”

“After a comprehensive due diligence effort, we found Essex to be a company with a leading market position in the niche crawler crane rental space, a sector characterized by long economic equipment lives, strong supply-demand dynamics, 6-18 month rental periods and limited obsolescence risk.”

“Furthermore, Essex has an outstanding management team, headed by CEO Ron Schad, who are experts in their field and committed to maintaining and growing Essex’s leading market position. We are acquiring Essex at an attractive valuation of about 84 percent of its orderly liquidation value, and at 5.6 times 2007 EBITDA of $37.2 million.”