New Orleans-based Crescent Bank has agreed to sell its auto financing division to Arra Finance. The deal, expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, will add Crescent’s $815 million auto loan portfolio, along with its servicing tech, fraud protection tools, and a team of 180 employees to Arra’s rapidly growing operation. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Underscoring the critical role of infrastructure supporting the digital age, Eaton Corp., a global intelligent power management company, agreed in March to buy Minden, Louisiana-based Fibrebond Corporation in a transaction valued at $1.4 billion. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025.
After agreeing to sell to United Rental (URI.N) in January, Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services Inc. (HEES.O) found itself at the center of a high stakes bidding war between two industry giants.
During H&E’s 35-day “go-shop” period following the United Rental bid, Herc Holdings (HRI.N) offered a transaction valued at $5.3 billion, including assumption of about $1.5 billion in debt. This topped United Rental’s $4.8 billion bid.
After agreeing to sell to United Rental (URI.N) in January, Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (HEES.O) found itself at the center of a high stakes bidding war between two industry giants. During H&E’s 35-day “go-shop” period following the United Rental bid, Herc Holdings (HRI.N) offered a transaction valued at $5.3 billion, including assumption of about $1.5 billion in debt. This topped United Rental’s $4.8 billion bid.
M&A activity in Louisiana started 2025 with a bang when Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services agreed on January 13th to sell to United Rentals, Inc. for $3.4 billion. United Rentals will acquire H&E for $92 per share in cash, plus the assumption of approximately $1.4 billion in net debt, reflecting a total enterprise value of approximately $4.8 billion.
H&E Equipment Services, one of Louisiana’s few publicly traded companies, is a leading provider of general and specialty equipment rentals, serving a diverse mix of customers across construction and industrial markets. Founded in 1961, the company has approximately 2,900 employees, and $2.9 billion of rental fleet at original cost, with more than 160 branches in 31 states. In recent years, H&E has concentrated on equipment rental, selling off its crane business in 2021 and its earthmoving distributorships in 2022, and buying smaller equipment companies in the Midwest and West.
For the second year in a row, Louisiana merger and acquisition activity declined. The state saw 171 transactions involving a Louisiana target, buyer, or seller announced or closed in 2024. This is an 8.6% decrease from 2023, when Louisiana had 187 transactions, and a 17.8% decrease from 2022, when the state showed 208 deals.
Louisiana’s 2024 performance flew in the face of the broader US market, which showed an estimated 7% rise over 2023 levels for deals over $30 million in value, according to Dealogic.
Six greater New Orleans area companies were sold or made acquisitions in the month of February. New Orleans-based ChapterSpot, the leading provider of CRM and member management software for fraternal and chapter-based organizations, sold to Michigan-based Billhighway, a provider of financial management solutions for fraternal organizations and associations. ChapterSpot founders Joe McMenemon and Brendan Finke are Tulane alumni who chose to keep their startup in the Crescent City, opting for the benefits of New Orleans’ Idea Village incubator program. The decision paid dividends, with ChapterSpot going on to win the Coulter IDEApitch competition at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week in 2013. The company participated in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program, and grew to be utilized by over 6,000 organizations in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBPCC), the largest cancer care organization in Louisiana, announced in January that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Shreveport-based MD Clinics. The transaction is significant because it will expand MBPCC’s services into north and central Louisiana, including rural clinics that are a model for delivery of patient care close to home. MBPCC has agreed to acquire MD Clinics’ network of eight cancer clinics and certain other assets in a transaction that is expected to close in April. The clinics will transition to MBPCC locations, with physicians and team members continuing to provide care to their patients from their existing clinic locations. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
Louisiana merger and acquisition activity dropped in 2023, mirroring a disappointing global M&A market. Overall, the state saw 187 deals in 2023 involving a Louisiana target/buyer/seller announced or closed. This represents an 11.2% decrease from the 208 deals struck in 2022. Global M&A volume for deals done below $500 million value, the largest segment of deals by some margin, saw a decrease of 6%. The biggest reason for the drop appears to be buyers and sellers disagreeing on price. Higher interest rates made debt financing more expensive, and lowered buyers’ estimated enterprise value for potential transactions. Sellers were seeing the higher equity values indicated by 2023’s stock market. Buyers also were holding off on deals until they had more clarity on the economy and the availability of financing.
Louisiana witnessed three significant acquisition transactions making headlines in November. Baton Rouge-based Marucci Sports sold again, this time to Fox Factory Holding Corp for $572 million. The deal, which closed on November 15, saw Fox purchase the renowned sports equipment manufacturer’s parent company, Wheelhouse Holdings Corp. from its parent, Compass Diversified Holdings and others. Marucci Sports was co-founded in 2009 by Kurt Ainsworth, a former Major League Baseball and LSU pitcher, and Joe Lawrence, former Toronto Blue Jays second baseman, along with Jack Marucci, the former LSU athletic trainer who built the first bat in his backyard shed in 2004.