Key Takeaways
- • Bregal Sagemount acquires A-Rent Test Equipment, a provider of high-voltage electrical testing equipment rentals and calibration services founded in 2019, from co-investors Sterling Partners and Rising Point Capital, with founder Paul Seppanen continuing as CEO.
- • A-Rent operates 1,000+ active customer relationships across utilities, data centers, industrial facilities, oil and gas, and renewable energy, with four operational distribution and calibration centers and a fifth facility opening in Hillsboro, Oregon in late 2026.
- • The investment capitalizes on $1.4 trillion in projected utility capital spending through 2030 (per Edison Electric Institute) and the US data center electrical equipment market expanding from $20 billion in 2025 to $65 billion by 2030, alongside 2,000+ gigawatts in US interconnection queues requiring testing and commissioning.
- • Mandatory compliance testing underpins recurring revenue: NERC reliability standards and ANSI/NETA procedures require utilities to maintain prescribed maintenance and testing schedules independent of broader economic cycles.
- • Sagemount's fifth fund, which closed in March 2026 at its $3.5 billion hard cap, is funding the investment; the oversubscribed fund was raised in four months and is approximately 30% larger than the predecessor $2.65 billion fund.
Summary
Bregal Sagemount has acquired A-Rent Test Equipment, a specialized provider of electrical testing equipment rentals and calibration services, from co-investors Sterling Partners and Rising Point Capital. A-Rent, founded in 2019 by Paul Seppanen, operates a national platform serving over 1,000 active customers across electric utilities, data centers, industrial and manufacturing facilities, oil and gas operations, and renewable energy projects. The company maintains four distribution and calibration facilities in Illinois, Texas, Arizona, and Virginia, with a fifth facility scheduled to open in Hillsboro, Oregon in late 2026. Seppanen will continue leading the company as CEO in partnership with Bregal Sagemount.
A-Rent's business model addresses a structural market need: electrical testing equipment is expensive and typically required only during commissioning projects, scheduled outages, and maintenance work, making rentals an attractive alternative to equipment purchases. The company's rental fleet includes relay and circuit breaker test sets, primary injection systems, hipot testers, transformer test equipment, power quality meters, infrared cameras, and load banks from manufacturers including Doble, Omicron, Megger, Fluke, and Avtron. Beyond rentals, A-Rent provides calibration services through its own laboratory, at customer sites, and remotely, issuing calibration certificates that verify equipment accuracy against known standards—a critical component of regulatory compliance.
The acquisition targets a market underpinned by both regulatory requirements and capital intensity trends. NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation) reliability standards mandate that utilities maintain and test protection systems on prescribed schedules, while ANSI/NETA standards govern field testing procedures, creating a recurring revenue base tied to maintenance cycles rather than macroeconomic conditions. Complementing this baseline demand is substantial grid and data center infrastructure investment: the Edison Electric Institute projects $1.4 trillion in investor-owned utility capital spending through 2030, including $239 billion in 2026, while Wood Mackenzie forecasts the US data center electrical equipment market will expand from $20 billion in 2025 to $65 billion by 2030. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reported over 2,000 gigawatts of generation and storage capacity in US interconnection queues at the end of 2025, representing a substantial pipeline of commissioning and testing work.
The investment is being made through Bregal Sagemount's fifth fund, which closed at its $3.5 billion hard cap in March 2026. The fund was oversubscribed and raised in just over four months, representing approximately 30% growth relative to the firm's predecessor $2.65 billion fund. Will Breskman, a partner at Sagemount, noted that "growing power demand from data centers, grid modernization and electrification is increasing the need for testing across both new and existing infrastructure," positioning A-Rent's scale and national reach to capture that demand. The electrical test equipment rental market has begun attracting sponsor capital; Sandbrook Capital acquired Intellirent from Electro Rent in February 2025, though competitive participants remain diverse, including sponsor-backed companies, family-owned operators, and public firms such as Transcat.
A-Rent's business model addresses a structural market need: electrical testing equipment is expensive and typically required only during commissioning projects, scheduled outages, and maintenance work, making rentals an attractive alternative to equipment purchases. The company's rental fleet includes relay and circuit breaker test sets, primary injection systems, hipot testers, transformer test equipment, power quality meters, infrared cameras, and load banks from manufacturers including Doble, Omicron, Megger, Fluke, and Avtron. Beyond rentals, A-Rent provides calibration services through its own laboratory, at customer sites, and remotely, issuing calibration certificates that verify equipment accuracy against known standards—a critical component of regulatory compliance.
The acquisition targets a market underpinned by both regulatory requirements and capital intensity trends. NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation) reliability standards mandate that utilities maintain and test protection systems on prescribed schedules, while ANSI/NETA standards govern field testing procedures, creating a recurring revenue base tied to maintenance cycles rather than macroeconomic conditions. Complementing this baseline demand is substantial grid and data center infrastructure investment: the Edison Electric Institute projects $1.4 trillion in investor-owned utility capital spending through 2030, including $239 billion in 2026, while Wood Mackenzie forecasts the US data center electrical equipment market will expand from $20 billion in 2025 to $65 billion by 2030. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reported over 2,000 gigawatts of generation and storage capacity in US interconnection queues at the end of 2025, representing a substantial pipeline of commissioning and testing work.
The investment is being made through Bregal Sagemount's fifth fund, which closed at its $3.5 billion hard cap in March 2026. The fund was oversubscribed and raised in just over four months, representing approximately 30% growth relative to the firm's predecessor $2.65 billion fund. Will Breskman, a partner at Sagemount, noted that "growing power demand from data centers, grid modernization and electrification is increasing the need for testing across both new and existing infrastructure," positioning A-Rent's scale and national reach to capture that demand. The electrical test equipment rental market has begun attracting sponsor capital; Sandbrook Capital acquired Intellirent from Electro Rent in February 2025, though competitive participants remain diverse, including sponsor-backed companies, family-owned operators, and public firms such as Transcat.
Go deeper than the headline
Research every firm in this story, track the ones that matter and get the daily briefing — free for 7 days.