Auto hauler Jack Cooper Transport was named by Reuters as a bidder for Yellow Corp. in a deal that would pull the former less-than-truckload carrier from bankruptcy. While described as a “long shot,” the potential transaction is said to be garnering “increasing interest from the Biden administration.”
The Monday report follows recent letters from senators to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking to extend the maturity date on a 2020 COVID-relief loan. The senators said an extension of the maturity date is required to facilitate Jack Cooper’s bid.
“By extending the maturity date of this loan, the interested parties would have the financing for their bid, and retain thousands of high-quality, jobs,” an Oct. 19 letter from Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., stated.
Yellow’s $700 million term loan from the Treasury will mature on Sept. 30.
Details on what assets Jack Cooper would be buying have not been provided. Sen. Marshall’s letter referenced “interested parties attempting to make a ‘going concern’ bid for the company.”
However, Yellow ceased operations in late July and has terminated most of its employees, including 22,000 Teamsters. The company has no revenue-generating operations currently and its assets are set to be auctioned off in the coming weeks.
Further, it remains to be seen how a company of Jack Cooper’s size — 1,200 trucks according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data — could pull off such a transaction. Yellow’s estate is expected to reel in more than $2.5 billion, which would more than satisfy secured creditors that include the Treasury.
Yellow’s roughly 12,000 tractors and 35,000 trailers were approved Friday by a Delaware bankruptcy court for sale through auction houses. A preliminary $1.525 billion bid has been approved by the court as a starting point for the sale of the company’s more than 170 owned terminals.
The Treasury and a committee of unsecured creditors to the estate were said to have participated in negotiations of the agency agreement with liquidators, a bankruptcy court filing showed.
Jack Cooper is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, not far from Overland Park, Kansas, where Yellow was based before relocating executive offices to Nashville, Tennessee, last year. Its employees are also represented by the Teamsters.
Jack Cooper too filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Shortly after filing for bankruptcy protection in 2019 it sold assets to longtime financial partner Solus Alternative Asset Management to reduce more than $300 million of debt. There has been no mention of Solus’ involvement in an offer for Yellow.
“We ask that Treasury indicate to the bankruptcy court that it is in the process of seeking the authority to extend the CARES Act loans which would enable rejoining the currently bifurcated asset at auction,” stated an Oct. 6 letter from Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., among others.
Inquiries to Jack Cooper, Solus and Marshall’s office were not responded to by the time of publication.
More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden
- ArcBest prudent in approach to new freight opportunities
- Auction houses to liquidate Yellow’s tractors, trailers
- Heartland books Q3 loss, cuts unprofitable customers and lanes
Freight Zippy
No one ever mentions why Zollars attempted to join several large LTL carriers into one super LTL Company?
In the few prior years Fed Ex Freight purchased Viking which was in poor shape to say the least. They then purchased American Freightways a huge nationwide LTL Carrier and joined them together successfully.
Fed Ex then purchased Watkins Freight Lines and merged that operation into Fed Ex Freight very successfully.
Amazing that joining those together was do so successfully but merging teamster Carriers failed?
That was Zollars mistake, believing that the union would be a partner in all of that..
Matthew
All those involved by Yellow Management should be Prosecuted for Stealing the Government Money. Follow the Money, Bank statements and money flow.
Freight Zippy
This is all BS there is no plan, Yellow is like every other Teamster LTL carrier, incapable of generating a decent profit.
The list of defunct Teamster LTL carriers is endless, all have one thing in common, being a Teamster LTL Carrier.
i would love to see this company attempt this, it would be comedic relief.
I admit Yellow management could have been better but they did keep that POS company alive much longer than it should have been..
SOB and his tough friends finally put Yellow out of its misery…
MD
Bernie Sanders is nothing more than a joke, he and Sean OBrien are two peas in a pod, I hope they vote his ass out. He criticized the Trump administration for lending Yellow the 700 million to help bail Yellow out and claimed it was a bad decision even though the money will be repaid WITH interest. Now he wants to lend the money to a carrier that is in as bad of shape if not worse then what Yellow was. This is a pie in the sky off the wall idea, no wonder the country is in the shape it is with fools like Sanders. This is doing nothing more than giving false hope to ex employees. It is too late, do nothing Sanders, you should have been there helping Yellow when they were basically on their knees asking for help. Now you want some company that has no experience in the freight industry and is flat ass broke to purchase the company on the tax payers ? I suggest Sanders quit his government job and go to work for OBrien and the Teamsters, he can help OBrien put more good companies out of business and force others to take their business out of the country.
LES DYMEK
ONLY JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD.YELLOW IS DEAD.PERIOD.LOST TRUST.LOST COSTUMERS. BAD REPUTATION.WAS GOOD COMPANY TO WORK BUT IN THE END FOUL THE HARD WORKERS.DID NOT PAY THEIR SICK DAYS,VACATION ETC.I WORKED FOR YRC,LATER YELLOW FOR 24 YEARS..18 YEARS AS SLEEPER TEAM AND 6 YEARS DAYCAB.EVERYDAY EVEN HOLLIDAYS.THEY TOLD ME THANK YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND NEVER PAY MY EARNED VACATION TIME.3 WEAKS.1700 DOLARS PER WEAK .YHEY OWENED ME 5100 DOLLARS.THSTS YELLOW.THANK YOU.
Mr Green
What does this mean for unemployment dock Workers who are still finding difficult challenges to gain employment with the slow down in the freight industry? I put in 8 years with Reddaway before we were added to the list of companies Yellow decided to take under with them. Yellow was running out dated systems to make sure that the Teamsters could not succeed. Old technology, beat up forklift. Unreliable ADC systems. Employees unable to print needed information to process unidentified freight.
Reddaway Employees walked into a systems that was set up to fail and we complained about adapting a new strategy like the one used at Reddaway. With Yellows systems, we constantly lost freight. Stagnant incoming freight, the system was full of flaws and management was stead fast on continuing to keep us behind at all points.
If we got ahead, management would find a way to put us back in the red. Changing routes that created late delivery and missed pickups. I don’t miss that frustration. But I did love my job and working with some good people.
Craig
Dave and Victor your completely right. DB Cooper your as stupid as Yellow Management