Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings closed on its acquisition of U.S. Xpress Enterprises July 1. After completing the acquisition, U.S. Xpress was de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange, according to a July 5 Knight-Swift release.
The transaction had an enterprise value of $808 million. U.S. Xpress shareholders received $6.15 per share in cash, more than four times the going price when the acquisition was announced. With the deal’s close, Knight-Swift (No. 3 on the FleetOwner 500 Top For-Hire list) has added about 6,000 vehicles to its fleet from U.S. Xpress
“As we have engaged with more of the U.S. Xpress organization since the announcement, we have even more confidence that our combined efforts will lead to achievement of the profitability targets we communicated,” Knight-Swift CEO Dave Jackson commented. “Our cross-functional synergy teams made up of leaders from Knight, Swift, and U.S. Xpress are off to a great start collaborating on plans to share best practices, improve operations, and leverage economies of scale—and now they have the green light to fully engage. While the truckload part of the organization focuses on achieving the goals we have laid out for U.S. Xpress, our LTL and M&A teams remain focused on our strategic priority of continuing to build out a nationwide LTL network.”
Knight-Swift also announced that its management expects consolidated second-quarter results will be lower than previous estimates. The company was not immune to the bottomed-out freight market characterized by soft demand and heightened expenses, according to the release.
