Kiloutou

Who owns Kiloutou?

Kiloutou is currently owned by Essling Capital through Essling Co-Invest 2 (2018 vintage), since 2018. Across its history, Kiloutou has been through 4 private equity ownership periods, detailed in the timeline below.

Hand-verified · updated 2026-04-21

About Kiloutou

Kiloutou is a French equipment rental group serving construction, events, energy, industry and services customers, and ranks as the third-largest equipment rental company in Europe. The group operates around 600 branches across seven European countries: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Denmark and Portugal. It rents a fleet of more than 350,000 equipment items to over 400,000 customers. Revenue reached 1.252 billion euros in 2024 with around 7,000 employees, and close to 40 percent of sales are generated outside France.

Ownership journey

Kiloutou was founded in 1980 by Franky Mulliez, who brought the small-equipment rental concept back from the United States and opened the first three branches in the Lille area. Sagard became a shareholder in 2005. PAI Partners acquired control in 2011 through PAI Europe V in a transaction valuing the business at 535 million euros, with Sagard retaining a minority position alongside. PAI Partners exited in 2018 via a trade sale, agreed in November 2017 in a transaction valuing the group at around 1.5 billion euros, when Kiloutou ranked as the fourth-largest equipment rental company in Europe. Since 2018 the group has been backed by HLD, with Sagard reinvesting and Essling Capital co-investing through its Essling Co-Invest 2 fund.

Under PE ownership

Under PAI Europe V ownership from 2011 to 2018, Kiloutou doubled in size and built a presence across five European countries, adding Germany, Spain, Poland and Italy to its French base; at the time of the November 2017 sale agreement the group expected more than 600 million euros of revenue for 2017, with 4,300 employees and around 500 branches. The HLD-led shareholder group has since funded an acquisition-driven internationalisation, including the purchase of GSV, Denmark's leading equipment rental company with a 22 percent national market share, in April 2022, and of Portuguese rental company Vendap in November 2022. The share of revenue generated outside France rose from 18 percent in 2021 to more than 37 percent in 2023. Group revenue crossed 1 billion euros for the first time in 2022, at 1,018 million euros, up 28.4 percent, and reached 1.252 billion euros in 2024 across roughly 600 branches and 7,000 employees.