Latek Capital Corp. was formed by Edward C. Latek in the early 1990’s as a direct result of his then quarter of a century close affiliation with the rental industry, first as the owner/president of a major construction equipment rental business, then as the industry’s major financing source, and now as its investment banking specialist.

Upon graduating from college in 1963, Ed joined his family's tool rental business in the south suburbs of Chicago, using it as a base from which to build Latek Rental Co. into a major multi location construction equipment rental business. Due to the growth and stature of Latek Rental, and due to Ed’s “love” of the rental business, he developed a strong, national profile within the rental industry. As an active member of the American Rental Association, Ed served as president of ARA of Illinois, Director of Region V of the national association, Chairman of the National Education Committee, and Chairman of the national convention seminar program. Due to this involvement with the rental industry on a national level, Ed became very familiar with the greatest obstacle then facing the continued development of the rental business – the lack of good financing.

As a result, in the early 1970’s, Ed began the development of Reli Financial Corp., a commercial finance company created expressly for the purpose of providing good corporate financing for the rental industry. Reli’s financing programs allowed its rental clients to greatly accelerate their expansion, and at the same time generate a strong, positive cash flow. This caused Reli to experience a dramatic growth in its portfolio by the mid 1980’s, while earning it a national reputation as being “the banker of the rental industry”. As a result, Reli became an attractive acquisition target as the financial services industry underwent major consolidation during the mid 1980’s, culminating in Ed’s selling Reli to a life insurance company in 1986.

Following his retirement from Reli, Ed embarked on his third “mission” in the rental industry by founding Latek Capital Corp. in the early 1990’s for the exclusive purpose of bringing professional investment banking services to the rental business. At that time, the industry began its first major transition of ownership change and consolidation, primarily for firms generating revenues in the $1.5 million - $5 million range, as the original industry “pioneers” began to sell their businesses to the corporate executives. This thus caused another era of expansive growth of the rental business – in public awareness, locations, revenues and profitability – so that by the mid 1990’s the industry began attracting the interest of private equity investors.

The advent of the equity investors into the rental industry lead to an era of dramatic change in the tool and construction/industrial equipment segments, with Latek Capital initiating and managing scores of transactions across the country. As the only true investment banker of the industry during the latter 1990’s Latek Capital successfully managed the divestiture of many of the industry’s larger firms ($10 million - $50 million range) and brought several equity groups into the industry, some of whom eventually became publicly owned businesses.

Following the turn of the new millennium the event and party equipment segment of the industry began reaching critical mass size (revenues greater than $10 million), thus ushering in substantial change in its ownership and consolidation, not unlike that which occurred in the equipment segment during the late 1990’s. Thus, again Latek Capital  has significantly affected the landscape of the rental industry by bringing several new equity investors into this segment of the industry.

Based in the Chicago area, Latek Capital  is readily able to provide its investment banking services to the rental industry throughout the U.S. The firm is a member of the American Rental Association, California Rental Association, Association for Corporate Growth, International Business Brokers Association, M & A Source, and various merger and acquisition networking organizations.

Since earning his accounting degree from St. Joseph’s College in 1963, Ed’s entire professional career has been focused on the rental industry. Ed has attended every American Rental Association national convention (now “The Rental Show”) since 1964, and again, with his wife Joni, will be in the firm’s exhibit booth at the forthcoming Rental Show in February. Ed and Joni have four children and seven grandchildren, and reside in Chicago’s north shore suburb of Lake Forest and La Quinta, California.