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TFI’s truckload business shines in record quarter, year

 TFi international’s truckload business, which includes U.S.-based CFI, is crowing.
TFi international’s truckload business, which includes U.S.-based CFI, is crowing.

TFI International (TSX:TFII) reported record fourth quarter and full-year financial results driven by strong growth in the Canadian transportation and logistics company’s truckload business.

TFI’s adjusted net income for the fourth quarter reached C$86.3 million, a 60 percent increase from 2017, on C$1.32 billion in revenue, an 11 percent increase. (A Canadian dollar currently is valued at $0.76 U.S. dollars.) The quarter capped a strong year for TFI, which saw its adjusted net income grow 67 percent to C$292 million on C$5.12 billion of revenue, up from C$C4.84 billion.

“These strong results reflect not only our unique and favorable positioning but our execution of the fundamentals, cycle in and cycle out,” CEO Alain Bédard said in a written statement accompanying the results, released today (February 27).

TFI’s Truckload segment, its largest, saw its operating income more than double quarter over quarter to C$52.3 million from C$22.8 million. Income from its Less-Than-Truckload segment also increased to C$23.5 million from C$13.2 million.

The Package and Courier segment showed a smaller increase, with TFI reporting C$34.4 in income in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to C$28.1 a year earlier. The Logistics and Last-Mile segment’s income declined significantly from C$14.1 million to C$2.9 million.

The company also reported that its operating margin had reached 8.9 percent, an increase of 270 basis points.

TFI’s adjusted earnings per share were C$0.85 for the quarter and C$3.22 for the year.

Montreal-based TFI has 26,487 trailers and 7,465 power units, and operates throughout the Canada, the United States and Mexico.

The company will host a conference call with analysts on February 28.

Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak is a Toronto-based journalist and producer who covers cybersecurity and cross-border trucking and logistics for FreightWaves. He spent seven years reporting stories in the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a reporter, producer and editor based in Kosovo. He previously worked at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News. He graduated from UC Berkeley, where he studied the history of American policing. Contact Nate at ntabak@freightwaves.com.