XPO Logistics Inc. (NYSE:XPO) will maintain the current name for the transportation company after XPO spins off its logistics business into a separate, publicly traded entity in the second half of the year, the company said.
The action, which wasn’t publicly announced, is considered pro forma because following a spinoff, the remaining entity, which in XPO’s case is the transportation company, typically retains the existing name. The name of the logistics company, GXO Logistics, Inc., was introduced earlier this month.
When the spinoff was announced in December, each business was given a place-holder name. The transport entity was labeled XPORemainCo, and the newly created company, composed of XPO’s North American and European logistics units, was called NewCo. Though XPO said at the time that it would assign permanent names to the companies, the use of XPORemain created some confusion as to whether the transport entity would retain its original name, according to someone familiar with the matter.
XPO Chairman and CEO Brad Jacobs will be chairman of both companies. Troy Cooper, XPO’s current president, will hold the same position with the transport entity. Malcolm Wilson, the current CEO of the company’s European operation, has been tapped to run the newly created logistics company.
In a related development, XPO has named Sandeep Sakharkar as GXO’s chief information officer. Sakharkar, currently XPO’s senior vice president-logistics technology, will lead GXO’s global systems development when the segment’s technology organization transitions to the new company, XPO said.
Mario Harik, who is XPO’s CIO and the architect of the company IT network so instrumental in the company’s success since its founding in 2011, will stay with XPO Logistics following the spinoff.