Dive Brief:
- The bankruptcy court-supervised auction for Yellow Corp.’s terminals has adjourned and will resume Monday, Dec. 18, according to a legal filing last week.
- The remaining 46 properties span across 26 states and one Canadian province. Among the most concentrated, Alabama, Louisiana and Ohio are home to three sites each.
- The court approved Tuesday the sales of the 128 terminals auctioned so far at a collective valuation of $1.88 billion. An unidentified LTL executive suggested that properties not purchased in the first batch likely didn’t have an acceptable bid, TD Cowen analysts wrote in an investor note Friday.
Dozens of properties are still for sale
Dive Insight:
XPO, Estes Express Lines, Saia and Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings took the bulk of the properties in the first three rounds of the auction, which kicked off Nov. 28 and lasted about a week.
Within the LTL market, XPO, Estes and Saia didn’t manage to keep all the terminals to themselves. Several other carriers are among the 21 different bidders poised to walk away from the auction with real estate.
A. Duie Pyle, ArcBest Corp. and TFI International each acquired properties. ArcBest submitted back-up bids on two others.
While many of the terminals stayed in LTL, some capacity could leave as companies move into the properties and sell their old terminals, or re-sell them to non-LTL businesses, the Cowen analysts wrote.
Pricing power remains in LTL carriers’ favor, and most are increasing rates by about 5-7% and expect to roll out similar general rate increases next year, according to the analysts.
“Some carriers could try to make up lofty real estate purchases with pricing, which may tilt shipper decisions,” they wrote.
