Alta Equipment’s December announcement that it intended to go public also contained some interesting comments on “the robust pipeline of consolidation opportunities in an extremely fragmented market.”
In light of this, it’s worth revisiting comments made by David Meyer, chairman and CEO of Titan Machinery, the company’s Nov. 26th 3Q analysts call. “We have seen the M&A pipeline for domestic farm equipment dealerships start to heat up,” Meyers said.
Meyer said Titan, a CNH Industrial agricultural and construction equipment dealer network with more than 100 locations, is “engaged in discussions with the owners of quality in North American ag dealerships. I expect these efforts to yield additional acquisition opportunities.”
The company recently closed the acquisition of the Uglem-Ness CaseIH dealership located in Northwood, North Dakota.
During the call’s Q and A session, “There are a lot of dealer principals looking for succession solution out there,” said John Mills, Titan managing partner, adding the company was focusing its acquisition efforts on “quality Case IH dealerships,” especially those contiguous to the existing Titan footprint.
Several things are leading to this M&A activity, Mills said, including an aged dealer principals owner group, increased demand from the OEM, the capital requirements of the business, the technical support required to support today’s fleet and a lack of succession.
