Rental Holdings Acquires Louisiana's Leading Provider of Specialty Lifting Products

CHICAGO, Ill.—August 16, 2006: Rental Holdings, LLC (now Delta Industrial Services, LLC), a platform company of Chicago lower-middle-market private equity firm Prospect Partners, LLC, and parent company of Industrial Hoist Services, LP, the nation's largest provider of hoist and rigging equipment for rental, sale or service, has announced the management-led acquisition of Delta Wire Rope, Inc. of Lafayette, Louisiana, a leading provider of fabricated lifting products.


Founded in 1979, Delta Wire Rope is Louisiana's leading provider of wire ropes and slings. It specializes in the sale, rental and servicing of equipment to customers primarily in the oil, petrochemical, construction, marine, timber and transport industries. An authorized distributor for the premier manufacturers Crosby Group, Inc., Bethlehem Wire Rope and American Wire Rope Corp., Delta also offers a wide range of services, including custom fabrication, inspection, repair and certification and testing. Its extensive line includes such products as wire rope and synthetic slings, rigging blocks, shackles, swivels, hooks and chain assemblies. Delta ships its products nationwide.

"Delta is a longtime performer with a solid management team and strong opportunities for continued growth," says Louis W. Kenter, a Principal at Prospect Partners. "It is a synergistic fit for Rental Holdings. We have strengthened our offering to industries we already serve while creating opportunities to cultivate new customers and industry segments with a broader fleet of equipment and accessories."

Adds Kevin P. Rodgers, Chief Executive Officer of Rental  Holdings, "Our goal at Rental Holdings is to be the one-stop resource for large industrial users looking to rent or buy rigging, hoist and other types of industrial equipment and tools -- whether for construction or turn-around projects, plant maintenance or routine inspection and repairs. We support this commitment by offering a wide variety of equipment and accessories and by providing topnotch 'hands-on' customer service to help ensure our customers order only the equipment that makes the most sense for their needs."

Toward that end, the company's Industrial Hoist Services subsidiary in June acquired two other Louisiana-based industrial equipment rental and service companies: B&H Air TOols, LLC, of Baton Rouge, and Port Rental, Inc., of New Iberia. As a result of those acquisitions, Industrial Hoist Services now offers the nation's largest rental fleet of hoists, winches and related rigging equipment.

Like Industrial Hoist, Delta will operate as an independent subsidiary of Rental Holdings. Its former owner, Bill Lindsey, will remain involved in the growth of the company as a consultant. Mike Lindsey, who has been with Delta since 1997, has been named President.

Furthering Rental Holdings' growth objectives, both Delta Wire Rope and Industrial Hoist Services will continue to seek acquisitions of companies that sell, lease and/or service industrial hoist or rigging equipment and other lifting apparatus.

About Rental Holdings, LLC

Rental Holdings of Chicago, Illinois, is a leading company specializing in industrial equipment sales, rentals and servicing. It has three subsidiaries. Industrial Hoist Services, LP, of Brazoria, Texas, is the national market leader in the rental, service and sales of pneumatic, electrical and mechanical powered chain hoists and winches to customers including power plants, refineries and shipyards. 24/7 Studio Equipment Inc. of Burbank, California, focuses exclusively on the rental of aerial and reach equipment to the entertainment industry. Delta Wire Rope, Inc., of Lafayette, Louisiana, is a leading provider of wire ropes and slings primarily to customers in the petrochemical, marine, construction, timber and transport markets.

About Prospect Partners, LLC

Prospect Partners, LLC of Chicago is a leading lower-middle-market private equity firm, managing $270 million in two private funds. Since its inception in 1998, Prospect Partners has focused on management-led leveraged acquisitions of small niche leaders with revenues typically between $10 and $30 million; the firm has invested in approximately 55 companies across a wide variety of niche consumer, commercial, specialty distribution and select service markets throughout the United States.