Under the new deal, TNT Crane has sold a majority stake in the company to Odyssey Investment Partners. Odyssey describes their investment strategy as focusing on middle-market companies that look set to benefit from economic changes, secular trends, regulatory changes or market dislocations. The company says it seeks to work closely with companies to drive growth, increase profitability and improve cash generation, and to transform them into larger businesses.
TNT Crane was established by Troy Lambert in Houston, Texas, almost 30 years ago. Mike Appling joined the company as president and CEO in 2007, working with investors MML Capital to build the business. Over the past four years, the company has bought Gulf Coast crane companies including Kuhn, in 2008; Americrane, at the end of that year; and RTL, at the start of 2011.
Organic expansion and acquisitions helped build the company’s fleet to 125 cranes, and added depots across Texas, along the US Gulf Coast, and up the Mississippi into Baton Rouge. With its geographical growth, the company also invested in higher capacity cranes.
Lambert remained on the board with Appling, and co-founder and general manager Randy Dobbs, throughout this stage of the company’s growth. In a statement announcing the new deal, Appling said, “We would like to thank our former board and shareholder base. MML Capital, Frans Brinkmann and Troy Lambert provided excellent guidance and support as we tripled the size of the business over a four-year period. We are extremely excited to partner with Odyssey for our future operations. They have an excellent reputation and deep understanding of our end markets which will make them an invaluable strategic resource.”
Bill Hopkins, managing principal of Odyssey said: “We have a long and successful history supporting and building businesses in the industrial equipment rental and services industries; we believe that TNT is a tremendous opportunity. Odyssey is extremely impressed with the management team and we look forward to working closely with them to continue building this business.”
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
