Enterprising Investor
11 months ago
Bankrupt trucking co Yellow approved for $1.88 bln real estate sale (12/12/23)
By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Bankrupt trucking company Yellow Corp received court approval on Tuesday to sell most of its shipping centers and real estate to multiple buyers for $1.88 billion, ending a bidder's long-shot effort to keep the company intact.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Goldblatt approved the sale at a court hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, saying that the purchase price was a "tremendous outcome" for the trucking company and its creditors.
The sale, which will parcel out 130 of the company's shipping centers to multiple buyers, generated enough cash to pay off the company's $1.2 billion in pre-bankruptcy debt, including $700 million owed on a U.S. Treasury Department COVID-19 pandemic relief loan approved by former President Donald Trump's administration in 2020.
Yellow is still seeking buyers for its remaining owned and leased real estate, including 46 shipping terminals, as well as its fleet of trucks.
Yellow chose to break up its assets rather than keeping the company intact for an outside buyer, despite pressure from U.S. Senators from both parties who argued that the company should remain intact as a way to save jobs.
Sarah Riggs Amico, the executive chair of trucking company Jack Cooper Transport, led a bid to buy Yellow through a new company called Next Century Logistics, and she had urged the U.S. Treasury Department to support that effort by modifying its loan to the company. Amico's bid would not involve any merger with Jack Cooper, which would remain a separate company.
Amico said Tuesday that she remained interested in bidding on Yellow's remaining terminals and trucks, which would allow her to re-hire 12,000 to 15,000 of the workers who lost their jobs when Yellow shut down.
"We look forward to working with the debtor to save thousands of jobs that don't need to be permanently lost," Amico said.
In the sale approved Tuesday, trucking company XPO Inc (XPO.N) was the largest buyer, acquiring 28 shipping centers for $870 million.
Yellow's attorney Allyson Smith said in court Tuesday that the auction was an unqualified success, greatly exceeding the $1.1 billion appraised value of Yellow's real estate and an early offer of $1.525 billion for all of its shipping centers.
Yellow, formerly known as YRC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August, blaming a labor dispute with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union for its demise.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/bankrupt-trucking-co-yellow-approved-188-bln-real-estate-sale-2023-12-12/
Enterprising Investor
11 months ago
First wave of Yellow terminals will go for $1.9B; sale process ongoing (12/04/23)
XPO to walk with 28 properties valued at $870M
By Todd Maiden
Several large less-than-truckload carriers as well as some real estate investors were named as winning bidders of defunct Yellow’s portfolio of terminals. In total, an auction that started last Tuesday netted nearly $1.9 billion in commitments for 130 of Yellow’s owned properties, according to a Monday evening filing in a Delaware court.
XPO’s (NYSE: XPO) $870 million bid for 28 properties — two of which are leased — was the largest winning bid.
Estes, which started the process with a $1.525 billion stalking horse bid that set the price floor for the auction, will walk with 24 terminals at a total purchase price of nearly $250 million.
Saia’s (NASDAQ: SAIA) bid includes 17 properties for a purchase price of $236 million.
Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE: KNX), which amassed a $1 billion LTL network through acquisition in 2021, has a winning bid for 13 terminals at a $51 million purchase price.
Private carriers R+L Carriers and Pitt Ohio were active as well through their real estate arms.
The Moroun family, which has majority interests in Central Transport, PAM Transportation (NASDAQ: PTSI) and Universal Logistics (NASDAQ: ULH), holds a winning bid for eight properties valued at $38 million through its real estate arm, Crown Enterprises.
Not mentioned in the filing was Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ: ODFL), which briefly held a top stalking horse bid of $1.5 billion. However, the carrier may still be active in the process or it could potentially acquire terminals from the winning bidders.
Bidder Terminal count Purchase price
XPO 28 $870M
Estes 24 $248.7M
Saia 17 $235.7M
RAMAR Land Corp. (R+L Carriers) 8 $211.5M
Terminal Properties, LLC (Pitt Ohio) 7 $83.8M
Knight-Swift Transportation 13 $51.3M
ArcBest 3 $30.2M
A. Duie Pyle 4 $29.4M
TForce 2 $16M
Southeast Consolidators 1 $8.5M
Skylark Logistics 2 $8M
Z Brothers Trucking 1 $4.2M
Unis 2 $2.4M
Table: Court filings
The court filing showed there were still 46 owned as well as some leased properties that remain to be sold.
Objections to the sale order are due by the end of business Friday. The court is expected to hold a hearing to approve the sales on Dec. 12.
The court recently approved the sale of Yellow’s 12,000 tractors and 35,000 trailers through auction houses. That liquidation remains ongoing.
The unwinding of Yellow’s estate is expected to generate proceeds greater than the $1.2 billion in debt held by secured lenders and the more than $200 million in bankruptcy financing provided by hedge funds.
The estate will still need to settle claims from unsecured creditors, including pension funds, which have claimed they are due billions. However, bankruptcy experts have told FreightWaves that pension withdrawal liabilities owed are likely to be negotiated to just a small fraction of a recent $6.5 billion estimate.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/first-wave-of-yellow-terminals-to-go-for-1-9b-sale-process-ongoing
Enterprising Investor
11 months ago
Auction for Yellow’s terminals ‘remains ongoing’ (12/01/23)
Could be Tuesday before winning bids are announced
By Todd Maiden
An auction for Yellow Corp.’s terminals hasn’t ended yet, a Delaware court filing revealed late Friday.
The auction for the bankrupt company’s less-than-truckload terminals began Tuesday morning, with an expectation that winning bids would be revealed Friday. The court document said it may now be Tuesday (Dec. 5) before the new owners of the service centers are made public.
Yellow operated roughly 300 terminals before it ceased operations at the end of July. Some of its property leases have already been terminated. However, parties interested in its more than 170 owned terminals were required to have their bids in by Nov. 9.
Less-than-truckload carrier Estes’ $1.525 billion stalking horse bid was named as the winning bid for the facilities in late September. That offer set the price floor for the current auction process.
What remains to be seen is the status of a going concern bid led by Jack Cooper Transport’s Executive Chair Sarah Amico.
The offer was reported to include $1.1 billion in new debt to pay off secured lenders and the hedge funds providing bankruptcy financing as well as $1.5 billion in preferred equity to satisfy claims from unsecured creditors. The linchpin for Amico’s offer, however, would require the U.S. Treasury to extend the maturity of a $700 million Covid-relief loan by two years from September 2024.
The plan received the support of nearly a dozen senators as well as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represented roughly 22,000 of Yellow’s 30,000 employees. However, Treasury has been reported to be weighing its options of potentially rescuing some of those jobs against its fiduciary obligation to taxpayers, which would be made whole under the current Chapter 11 liquidation plan.
The balance on Treasury’s financing package with Yellow stands at more than $737 million, according to recent court filings.
Yellow’s roughly 12,000 tractors and 35,000 trailers were previously approved by the court for sale through auction houses.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/auction-for-yellows-terminals-remains-ongoing