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United Rentals (URI) Acquires BlueLine, Updates 2018 View

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United Rentals, Inc. (URI - Free Report) has acquired BlueLine Rental from Platinum Equity in a bid to expand geographically and enhance its product portfolio in North America. The all-cash deal is valued at approximately $2.1 billion and has been funded by newly-issued debt and bank borrowings.

Meanwhile, shares of United Rentals, which have been underperforming its industry year to date, jumped 3.9% following the news.

Buyout Synergies

United Rentals, the world’s largest equipment rental company, expects the deal to create major opportunities for revenue growth and to gain a well-diversified customer base. This acquisition will boost the company’s capacity across the largest metropolitan areas in North America, including both U.S. coasts, the Gulf South and Ontario. The combination will also increase United Rentals’ fleet by more than 46,000 rental assets across 114 branch locations.

BlueLine, one of the leading equipment rental company, has a strong well-diversified customer base, serving more than 50,000 customers in the construction and industrial sectors, with a focus on mid-sized and local accounts.

Additionally, the deal is expected to generate approximately $45 million of cost synergies in corporate overhead, operations and third-party re-rent areas. United Rentals will likely realize approximately $15 million of fleet and other procurement savings based on the combined spending.

Guidance Revised

The company, a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock, has revised its 2018 guidance by adding $120 million of total revenues and $50 million of adjusted EBITDA to the prior guidance to account for the impact of the BlueLine acquisition.

The company now expects total revenues in the range of $7.89-$7.99 billion as compared with the prior guidance of $7.77-$7.87 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is now anticipated in the range of $3.815-$3.865 billion, up from prior guidance of $3.765-$3.815 billion.





Repurchase Program

Moreover, United Rentals has put its $1.25-billion share repurchase program on hold due to the BlueLine acquisition and plans to integrate its operations and assess other potential uses of capital.

Other Stocks to Consider

A few other top-ranked stocks in the Construction sector include KBR, Inc. (KBR - Free Report) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (AWI - Free Report) and PGT Innovations, Inc. , carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

KBR reported better-than-expected earnings in three out of trailing four quarters, the average beat being 12.6%

Armstrong World’s earnings for 2018 are likely to increase 24.2%.

PGT Innovations’ 2018 earnings are expected to grow 77.1%.

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