On November 3, 2015, G. Cooper Equipment Rentals Limited (Cooper Equipment) completed its previously announced acquisition of SMS Rents, a major Canadian construction equipment rental business. G.C. Andersen Partners, LLC, a New York-based investment bank, acted as exclusive financial advisor to Cooper Equipment and arranged an $80 million senior credit facility to complete the acquisition through its wholly owned broker-dealer, G.C. Andersen Partners Capital, LLC.
Cooper Equipment, backed by Canadian private investment firm, SeaFort Capital, is the leading compact equipment rental company in the Greater Toronto Area.
SMS Rents was a member of the Sumitomo Corporation Group and a division of SMS Construction and Mining Systems Inc. (SMSC).
Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP (soon to be Gowling WLG) advised Cooper Equipment with a team that included Robert Hull, Neeta Sahadev and Andrew Zed (corporate/M&A) and Leila Burden-Nixon and Thomas Gertner (financial services).
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP advised SMSC with a team that included Scott Conover and Jack Yu (corporate/M&A), Andrew Nunes (technology), Ronald Nobrega, Paul Casuccio and Thomas Brook (tax), Katherine Pollock, Alix Herber and Marc Rodrigue (employment), Ross Gascho (benefits/pension), Rosalind Cooper (environmental) and Robert Iaccino (real estate).