McGrath RentCorp makes $260m acquisition in US

US portable accommodation and storage company McGrath RentCorp has acquired California-based Design Space Modular Buildings for US$260 million.

Design Space, headquartered in Mission Viejo, Los Angeles, supplies and rents modular buildings and portable storage from 15 branches in eight states in Western US. It employs 110 people and reported revenues of $81 million in 2020.

The deal will expand McGrath’s Mobile Modular division, adding around 6,400 units to its fleet. Almost 30% of Design Space’s fleet comprises storage units.

“Our acquisition of Design Space is highly complementary to our modular building rental business,” said Joe Hanna, President and CEO of McGrath RentCorp.

A trailer accommodation unit in Design Space’s rental fleet.

“With the acquisition now completed, we will turn our collective energy to completing a successful integration process. We look forward to building on Design Space’s success and achieving future growth together. We are excited to start working with our new team members.”

Co-owners of Design Space, Paul McShane, CEO, and Tony Esernia, founder, said; “We are extremely pleased to see Design Space combine with McGrath RentCorp, an organization that shares our same operating philosophy and customer centric approach.

“Importantly, we are excited for our employees to have the opportunity to become part of this world-class organization.”

The deal is the latest of several involving the portable accommodation and storage market in the last two months. In April, United Rentals announced the acquisition of General Finance Corp, adding storage and accommodation businesses in US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and last week Nordic company Adapteo said it was being acquired by a private investment fund controlled by Goldman Sachs.