Dive Brief:
- ArcBest shareholders lowered the voting threshold for the company to be acquired, the company announced in an earnings filing Wednesday.
- The measure, one of several proposals adopted last month, removed a supermajority vote requirement for mergers and acquisitions of the Arkansas-based company, replacing it with a simple majority vote.
- The move makes a future acquisition of the company easier to approve. The measure had widespread shareholder support, with 20.9 million voting in favor, 539,000 against, and about 16,000 abstaining.
Dive Insight:
The amendment to the company’s bylaws could help turn rumors about a potential TFI International acquisition of ArcBest into reality.
Following the collapse of Yellow Corp., TFI’s TForce Freight and ArcBest’s ABF Freight are the country’s biggest remaining unionized LTL carriers.
The amendment change was part of a broader review to bring the company’s governance structure into line with the majority of S&P 500 companies, ArcBest noted to Trucking Dive.
“We were pleased to receive overwhelming support from shareholders with over 97% of votes cast in favor of the proposal,” ArcBest spokesperson Autumnn Mahar said in an email.
The measure was approved alongside the company’s proposals for executive pay, board members and renewing Ernst & Young as its independent accounting firm.
ArcBest has maintained that the proposal to eliminate the M&A supermajority vote requirement came in response to shareholder feedback.
“These changes do not signal a change in our strategy — we remain focused on executing our strategic plan to extend our long track record of success creating value for shareholders,” Mahar said previously.
Any M&A of ArcBest by TFI or another major player would cause a splash in the LTL sector, which consolidated significantly last summer following Yellow’s bankruptcy and asset sales.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include a comment from an ArcBest spokesperson.
