Enercare inks deal to acquire Service Experts for US$340.75 million

TORONTO – Enercare Inc. (TSX:ECI), a company that provides water heaters, furnaces and air conditioners to homes and businesses, has reached a US$340.75-million deal to snap up Service Experts.

Dallas-based Service Experts is one of North America’s biggest heating and air conditioning companies, with residential and commercial customers in 29 U.S. states and three provinces.

Service Experts has 90 locations and employs about 2,800 people who it says serve an average of 2,000 homes and businesses each working day. Enercare has 1,000 employees and more than 1.2 million customers.

“Through Service Experts, we become a North American market leader in home services,” said Enercare CEO John Macdonald in a statement Monday. “The acquisition, which is a natural extension to our business, creates an opportunity to drive growth and create shareholder value.”

The deal will be partly paid for through a US$218-million bought deal financing agreement led by National Bank Financial and TD Securities. The rest is to be financed with a committed term loan provided by its existing lenders, Toronto Dominion Bank and National Bank of Canada.