News

10 December 2018

Lonsdale acquires a significant stake in Cross Rental Services

Lonsdale Capital Partners (“Lonsdale”), the private equity firm focused on the lower mid-market, announced it has made a significant investment in Cross Rental Services, a leading provider of rental services to both retail and commercial customers. The Group operates across Ireland and the UK and is led by Ken Keating (Executive Chairman) who, along with Ruairi Walsh, started the business in 2006 as a division within the wider Cross Group (design, installation and servicing of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment) before carving the business out as a standalone entity.

The business has two divisions: Equipment as a Service (EaaS) and Temperature Control (TC). EaaS includes the rental of industrial fridges, ovens and coffee equipment whilst TC includes heating and chilling units such as industrial boilers and air conditioning units.

The Group differentiates itself through a strong engineering capability in the TC space, and a long term EaaS rental offering that provides customers with certainty of costs and an attractive alternative to the traditional Capex intensive model of ownership. In addition, the differentiated product focus on both EaaS and TC results in less seasonality and cyclicality than other operators.

With Lonsdale’s support, Cross will consolidate its position in the Irish market whilst placing increased focus on the UK. Growth in the UK will be achieved via organic growth and selective bolt-on acquisitions.

This is the seventh principal investment for Lonsdale since closing its first institutional fund at £110 million in April 2016. In addition, the fund has made 11 bolt-on acquisitions, and partially exited superyacht servicing business, GYG plc via a listing on AIM in 2017.

Ken Keating, Executive Chairman of Cross Rentals, said: “Cross Rentals has positioned itself to grow significantly via its market leading position within Ireland and growing presence in the UK. There is potential to expand our offering and move into new markets.

We are delighted to have entered into partnership with Lonsdale, and this will enable us to fast-track our growth plans via accelerated capex investment which will allow the business to take advantage of the significant opportunity that exists”.

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