Good day,
In a striking private equity deal, Providence Equity Partners has agreed to buy GlobalTranz (GTZ), a top 10 third-party logistics provider (3PL), back from The Jordan Company after selling GlobalTranz to Jordan for approximately $400 million in June.
An investment banker who was not involved with the deal told FreightWaves that GlobalTranz “blew its plan out of the water” and that The Jordan Company was in a position to realize an approximately 100 percent return on its investment in less than a year. The financial terms of the acquisition and management’s capital structure were not disclosed.
For more, read the FreightWaves article.
Did you know?
According to one of FreightWaves recently added indexes that measures average time spent on the dock loading or unloading at a facility, specialty retailers and electronics retailers take the longest to load or unload a truck. The current average time spent on a dock (not including the time to drop trailers) for specialty retail stores is 223 minutes, while electronics retailers are averaging 214 minutes. Typically, big box stores and food warehouses have anecdotally worse reputations for detaining carriers.
Quotable:
“Most of us in the trade business thought terminating NAFTA would be quite a body blow, but what Trump is talking about now, shutting the southern border, would be catastrophic,” – Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics
In other news:
Heavy-duty truck orders hit the brakes in March
Orders for Class 8 rigs fell to the lowest level since October 2016 after a strong surge in buying in 2018. (WSJ)
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn face off before Brexit talks
May on Tuesday reached out to Corbyn for talks in an attempt to break the impasse before next week’s exit deadline. Join us for news, analysis and market reaction at midday London time. (Bloomberg)
Cavalry Logistics expands through Universal integration, new locations
The Nashville-based third-party freight brokerage, a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal (NASDAQ: ULH), and the absorbed division will rebrand as Cavalry Logistics International. (FW)
Fighting Sex Trafficking at the Truck Stop
Truckers are urged to report sex trafficking on their routes. It’s not “the world’s oldest profession,” one says. “It’s the world’s oldest oppression. These are slaves.” (NYT)
Fast Radius raises $48 million to scale up its additive manufacturing capacity
Fast Radius, an industrial-grade contract manufacturer specializing in additive manufacturing, has raised $48 million in Series B financing, with the round led by UPS alongside insider participation from Drive Capital. (FW)
Final thoughts:
Manufacturing slowdowns have negatively impacted air cargo demand. In the latest International Air Transport Association (IATA) data, January indicates a second consecutive month of global volume declines, which are anticipated to continue into February for a third month. Indeed, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) recently published February data and it was not a surprise. February volumes declined 11.9 percent. However, it should be noted that the Chinese New Year was in February this year, which skews year-over-year comparisons. Instead, a look at the first two months combined presents a clearer picture – albeit a dismal one – of an 8.3 percent decline.
Read the FreightWaves article.
Hammer down everyone!