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Alta Equipment joins with financial company to form publicly-traded construction equipment firm

Marcia Doyle Headshot
Updated Dec 16, 2019

Alta Equipment Service TechAlta Equipment Holdings, Livonia, Michigan, has merged with B. Riley Principal Merger (BRPM), a special purpose acquisition company, to create a publicly-traded equipment dealership platform valued at approximately $550 million. Alta carries Volvo Construction Equipment and JCB lines, among others.

When the deal closes, BRPM says it will change its name to Alta Equipment Group and apply to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ALTG.”

Alta Equipment will have a pro forma revenue of $900 million for 2019, says the release announcing the merger. This includes the $95 million acquisition of two dealers by Alta now under non-binding letters of intent and in pending negotiation. During a call on the merger, Alta said the unnamed dealers were “the Volvo dealership in Florida,” presumably Flagler Construction Equipment, and a Hyster-Yale dealership in upstate New York.

With the acquisitions, Alta will operate in 43 locations across Michigan, Illinois, New England, New York and Florida. The company will be led by CEO Ryan Greenawalt, who owned the existing equity interest in the prior Alta company and will roll 85 percent of his equity into Alta Equipment. Dan Shribman, CFO of BRPM, will serve on the board.

Greenawalt rejoined Alta, his family’s firm, in 2008, coming to the company from a financial services background. Since then, the company has acquired 16 equipment dealers and grown revenues at a compounded annual rate of approximately 27 percent from 2009 to 2019 (including the two potential acquisitions), says the release.

In addition to construction equipment, Alta also also serves clients in logistics and warehousing, wholesale and retail, biotech education and manufacturing.