Financial terms of the investment are undisclosed but Equistone is investing alongside management and the original founder-owner in line with the company’s ongoing organic and acquisitive growth plans to further increase its market share within the UK vehicle rental sector.
The buyout is Equistone’s 17th investment from its fifth fund, Equistone Partners Europe Fund V, and will see Tim Swales and Paul Harper, both partners at Equistone, join the board of T.O.M.
Robert Stewart, CEO of T.O.M. Vehicle Rental, said: “Equistone’s investment in T.O.M. is transformational for our business, in terms of both the financial backing and the increased executive team bandwidth it provides. This additional support will allow us to accelerate the ambitious expansion in our market share, number of UK locations, fleet size, customer base, and rental service offering. Throughout these changes, the same quality of service and concern for customer satisfaction that have underpinned T.O.M.’s success to date will remain our core focus.”
Paul Harper at Equistone added: “We have exciting plans for the continued development of the business, which is extremely well positioned for further organic and strategic growth. We look forward to working closely with Robert and his team in developing T.O.M. into the number one player in the UK for multi-asset vehicle rental.”
T.O.M. provides long-term, flexible hire of cars, vans, trucks and trailers to over 900 public and private sector customers via 11 hire locations across the UK and also operates a commercial vehicle dealership across five sites through its two franchised dealer brands, Mercedes-Benz and Citroën.
T.O.M. generated revenues of £213m in the financial year ending March 2016.
