United Rentals Inc, the world's largest equipment rental company, said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire privately held National Pump, the second-largest specialty pump rental company in North America, for $780 million. The deal marks United Rentals' foray into the pump rental sector, which is benefiting from increased demand from energy and petrochemical companies tapping into the shale gas boom in the United States. Upstream oil and gas customers account for about half of National Pump's revenue.National Pump, which was founded in 2007, will become part of United Rentals' specialty division. United Rentals, which also rents out forklifts, water pumps, diesel generators and earthmoving and trench safety equipment, said the deal offered significant cross-selling opportunities."This transaction is an important step in our strategy to create a company that delivers strong financial returns through the cycle," United Rentals Chief Executive Officer Michael Kneeland said in a statement.In a revision to its financial outlook, United Rentals said it was expecting 2014 revenue in the range of $5.45 billion to $5.65 billion and adjusted 2014 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between $2.55 billion and $2.65 billion.
United Rentals, Inc. is a holding company. The Company primarily conducts its operations through its wholly owned subsidiary, United Rentals (North America), Inc. Shares of URI fell by 0.01% or $-0.01/share to $88.49. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $44.85 and as high as $91.03. On average, 1600370 shares of URI exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1849143.
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