Duke Street et al. buy Fork Rent and One Call Hire

The double buyout will be followed by a merger of both companies. According to the firms, the business duo will benefit from Fork Rent's existing clientbase in the residential construction sector plus One Call Hire's activity among infrastructure and commercial customers.

According to unquote" data, the acquisition is Duke Street's first so far in 2015. The buyout house has recently been active on the sell-side after divesting Laurel Funerals to two corporate buyers for a combined £75m and selling its minority stake in French medical analysis service Biomnis, both in June.

The deal is the first announced by New York-headquartered Searchlight in Europe since the turn of the year. The firm's latest foray in the continent took place in December 2014, when it picked up advertising business Ocean Outdoor from LDC.

Earlier this year a near-identical transaction for building material equipment rental companies took place in Denmark, when CataCap and Access Capital Partners acquired GSV and Pitzner.

Company
Headquartered in Ipswich, Fork Rent provides construction companies with machinery including diggers, dumpers, excavators, telehandlers and forklifts. Founded in 1978, the business currently employs 110 people.

One Call Hire was founded in 2000 and rents out construction and civil engineering equipment. Headquartered in Enfield, the company keeps 3,000 machines on offer across 23 depots in the UK.

People
Partner Stuart McMinnies led the deal for Duke Street, while Searchlight was represented by founding partner Oliver Haarmann. Guy Nicholls is chairperson at Fork Rent.

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