A pair of heavy-equipment rental companies joined forces and secured financing last week to expand their presence across the Sun Belt amid increased rental demand.
The merger of Austin, Texas-based Opifex Enterprises and Tampa-based Synergy Equipment makes the combined company the ninth-largest rental equipment provider in the U.S., according to the Rental Equipment Register 100, which tracks rental and sales volume for the 100 largest rental companies. It also makes Opifex and Synergy, which will continue operating under their names, the largest independent rental companies in their respective headquarter states.
The venture is backed by incremental equity capital from Avance Investment Management and Synergy Chief Executive J.C. Mas. The parties did not disclose details on the deal.
Surge in rental demand
Synergy, founded in 2012, has 22 locations across Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Opifex was founded in 2018 and has branches in Austin, San Antonio and College Station, Texas. Together, the companies will work to capitalize on increased infrastructure spending and commercial construction projects throughout the Southern U.S, according to a press release.
“We are excited to combine the resources and best practices of the two businesses to create one of the leading market participants in Florida, Texas and other high-growth equipment rental markets in the South,” Synergy’s Mas stated in the release.
The merger reflects the surge in rental demand stemming from elevated prices and a tight lending climate, Opifex co-founder and Chief Executive Joseph Vaughn told Equipment Finance News.
“Higher interest rates, a labor shortage and inflated machine costs have pushed more customers from owning machinery to renting machinery, increasing rental penetration and growing the total addressable market,” Vaughn said.
Opifex has capitalized on this growing market by providing the “fastest service response times in the industry,” he said.
The construction equipment rental industry was valued at $104.9 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow 4.4% annually to $161.4 billion by 2033, according to Precedence Research. Total volume for the top 100 equipment rental firms in North America grew 15.8% year over year to a record $41 billion in 2023, according to the RER 100.
Opifex in 2022 received a $65 million investment from GP Capital Partners, joining additional funding sources such as John Deere Financial and CNH Industrial Capital, according to a previous press release. The company did not disclose how the merger affects previous financing deals.
Members of Synergy’s leadership team previously helped build Miami-based Neff Rental into a national equipment rental company, Vaughn said. Neff, of which Mas became CEO in 2002, was later acquired by United Rentals for $1.3 billion in 2017. At the time, Neff was ranked no. 10 on the RER 100 with 69 locations across 14 states.
Opifex aims to lean on Synergy leadership’s experience “while bringing a fresh perspective, a new growth engine and local knowledge of the multibillion-dollar Texas market,” Vaughn said.
